A strange thing happened to me at church on Sunday morning. The service had just ended, and my wife was chatting with another woman about getting together for dinner next weekend. While I was waiting, one of our pastors came over and asked me how I was doing.  I figured he was just making small talk – but he said that he had really been thinking about me recently. In fact, he said that I had been in his prayers – which surprised me quite a bit.

The next thing he said, really surprised me.  He said “I don’t even know what you do for a living, but are you thinking about retiring soon”?  “Sooner than you might think …” I replied with a slight smile, although I didn’t really let anything more out.

Now I am not quite 49 years old and have a full head of hair, with only a touch of gray (no hair dye either!). Why would he out of the blue ask me if I’m thinking about retiring soon? I have never talk to him or anyone else at the church about my goal of FIRE by 50.  He’s a little younger than I am, but why would he even think that?

My wife was shocked when I told her. Then she related the story from a couple years ago when she got a call on her birthday from the same pastor. Her mother would call her every year on her birthday, but she had passed away earlier in the year. Our pastor called and said he wasn’t sure why he was calling, but that he felt like he should reach out to her.  He didn’t have any idea that it was her birthday until she told him. She also told him how much it meant to her that he called her on the day she was used to having her mother call. Divine intervention?

I wife said that I should definitely share our “One More Year” Fund idea with him. The topic of his sermon on Sunday was giving, so he probably would be really interested in our plan. Maybe there is a little synchronicity to our journey to FIRE and he was sent to encourage us along … 😃