So here I am, at that age where saving for retirement becomes an urgent matter.

Of course, I will save what I can for retirement. But, watching those who are older than me and how things have turned out for them, I realize that I'd just better not get my hopes up when it comes to old age and money.

I knew an (almost) 90 year old woman whose husband worried about money all their lives, until he died; she lived fairly well until she became sick. She lived in a nursing home, paid for by Medicaid, and she got an allowance of $30 a month. All that worrying about money did no good in the end.

I knew another person, quite a bit younger, who planned well for retirement, worked very hard and had a bit less fun than she would have liked, and then discovered, at the beginning of her hard-won retirement, that she had only a few months left to live.

Oh, I also know quite few people who saved and are now enjoying their retirement; it worked out quite well for them.

The point here, though, is to invest in the important things. Rather than worrying about tomorrow, I need to keep my heart in today. I can't literally put a dollar in heaven (regardless of what the TV evangelists might say), but I can surely invest in God's kingdom here by putting his business first. I can afford to be generous with other people! Then, whether I'm rich or poor in retirement, I won't have to look back and say, "Well, I just wasted all that effort, didn't I?"

Life is not about dollars!