It seems very synchronistic that as we have been meditating on Holy Work exemplified in the work of Lily Yeh as an artist who heals and build community that way, and then on Thom Hartmann, who with other journalists is trying to bring truth into our political discourse, President Jimmy Carter has died.
Carter was not a 100% successful president by any means. But I think by most standards of valuation, he was a 100% successful human being.
By that I mean he lived out his values. He had values and played them out. Yes, a politician who lived out values—not by talking about them but by walking his talk.
Carter was unapologetic about his Christianity. He criticized his fellow Baptists and fellow Christians for their hypocrisy and racism and more, but he moved beyond criticizing to acting and actually sacrificing and living an essentially simple lifestyle while working for the needy and with them to build homes with his own hands even in his advanced age thus bringing attention to Habitat for Humanity.
His Carter Center did not just talk about democracy in the abstract, but participated in observing elections around the world to ensure their integrity. He committed himself to eradicating guinea worm disease found in Africa and used his visibility as an ex-president to draw attention to eradicating that disease while calling attention to the fragility of democracy around the world. And at home.
He questioned the apartheid in Palestine and took severe criticism for doing so, yet today his criticism has been called “prescient.”*
His was not a “holier-than-thou” and “more-righteous-than-thou” notion of faith. He went around trying to do good in a damaged world and he used his power as a public figure to accomplish his goals.
I have written about the need to move from retirement consciousness to a refirement consciousness after one steps away from one’s regular job. That we should toss out the language of “retirement” and replace it with “refirement.”
Jimmy Carter did that. Not by talking or preaching or pomposity, but by actions. In doing so he has offered a model for those who, on leaving their job at “retirement” time, and having the privilege of living the rest of their life in comfort, also have the opportunity to be freed up to help others in new ways.
Sacrifice matters. After all, it means etymologically, to “make sacred.” Just as our work is sacred or is meant to be. So our moving beyond a formal work world can also be sacred time (as distinct from “me-time”).
Carter set a high bar for all to move from retirement to refirement. He dug into his soul for the last 45 years of his life and determined that he could use his talents, skills, decent health and connections to assist others and not just accumulate more wealth.
Would that others—politicians and other workers as well—could do the same. Intergenerational wisdom would be one result as elders work side by side with youth to build community and a future.
A Blessed New Year to all. And gratitude to Jimmy Carter for his witness to work, refirement and holiness.
*Chris McGreal, “Carter’s book on Israeli ‘apartheid’ was called antisemitic – but was it prescient?” The Guardian, Mon 30 Dec 2024.
See Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 201-203, 214f.
And Fox, The Reinvention of Work.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
And Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.
Banner Image: Jimmy Carter participated in The Elders, an international council of former world leaders working for peace, justice, human rights, and a sustainable planet. Photo by Statsministerens kontor is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree that Carter sets a high bar for others to move from retirement to refirement and doing so is important? And that he was a man of values who committed to them and lived them out? And that matters in politicians and other workers? And our work is holy?
Recommended Reading
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time
Thomas Aquinas said, “To live well is to work well,” and in this bold call for the revitalization of daily work, Fox shares his vision of a world where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony–a world where the self is not sacrificed for a job but is sanctified by authentic “soul work.”
“Fox approaches the level of poetry in describing the reciprocity that must be present between one’s inner and outer work…[A]n important road map to social change.” ~~ National Catholic Reporter
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
8 thoughts on “Jimmy Carter: Model of Refirement as Holy Work”
Another man or woman’s bar is not the same as our bar as they have a different starting point, a different level of Christ consciousness. We cannot compare, but only start from where we are currently at or standing or sitting or kneeling or in the starting blocks or half-way down the track (the path).
‘Firement’ for Today, 2025 and Beyond – Our ‘eyes’ are fixed. Our course is set. We are in the ‘starting blocks’ and ready to explode out of them. The new year is dawning and what we can bring to it, bring to ourselves is our wearing of ‘the full armour of God’. Our hearts become the Sacred Heart and whether that outpouring of love be messy at first does not matter. Intention with love at its core, with Christ consciousness as its foundation, is paramount and we may fall and fail many times, stand again supported by Grace and make progress towards our goal, nevertheless.
We need to find our own ‘voice in Christ’ before we can become the voice for others. Both humility and power are interwoven. Be love, be peace, be joy, be merciful, be healers, which is our Sacred duty as Christ’s representatives, a community of Saints in the world. – BB.
Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter are models for all of us, in and out of retirement. Jimmy Carter did much when he could use his stature as former president of the US to move other nations and politicians to do the right thing. He also did the small things which all of us can do to help our brothers and sisters to lead better lives–even just driving in a few nails in the hot sun to build a Habitat house.
I was moved by the last hymn at Rosalyn Carter’s funeral:”Let There be Peace on Earth and Let It Begin with Me.” May that be our fervent prayer. Peace be to Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter. Amen.
“Refirement” is an excellent term, as is “sacrifice matters”. President Carter has been an inspirational role model for us all. To have lived in the way that he has as a former President puts him in even greater esteem because he genuinely humbled himself. Former British Prime Minister said he was subservient to no one and condescending to no one, treating everyone equally. It is a fine quality.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you Matthew and DM staff for honoring the life and legacy of Jimmy Carter in today’s DM as another spiritual warrior for Peace & Justice! May God bless him in Heaven with All the Saints in human history!
Jimmy Carter was a good person. A true example of what we all should try and be. He worked for the good of all peoples. May he rest in Peace.
Jimmy Carter was a decent man. His 2006 book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid seems particularly prescient now.
But people are complicated. As a president, he was a disaster, especially for working people. His deregulation of the airline and trucking industries–and launching of the effort to deregulate telecommunications, which was consummated under Reagan–without any regard or protections for the wages and job security of the affected workers destroyed hundreds of thousands of decent working-class jobs and set the terms for the subsequent neoliberal assaults on working people. Not to mention his abandoning support for labor law reform and the effort to allow common situs picketing. Not to mention his invocation of Taft Hartley to force striking miners back to work. The list goes on…
Jimmy Carter aged gracefully and worked to redeem himself as a former president. I think Jimmy and Rosalynn would make nice next-door neighbors. But I cannot forget his term in office and its effect on tens of millions of families.
Jimmy Carter was the first president for whom I voted as an 18 year old. I remember defending my choice with my roommate’s father as we traveled to her house for break, searching for the facts to back up my choice. I felt that he was set up by the Iranians and OPEC and that Reagan benefited from more than one of Carter’s policies. History shows he was naive as a leader in many ways, but I prefer the power of his vulnerability over the calculated lies and manipulations of our pending political leaders. 50 years after my car defense of Carter, ‘alternative facts’ has become part of our common discourse. ‘Alternative facts’ is just another name for the evil which loves trafficking in half truths. Carter also stood up against the powers of organized religion once he realized his own patriarchal privilege- and condemned the Southern Baptists for not ordaining women. I’m still proud of my choice of the man for whom I voted so long ago, rest in peace good and faithful Servant.
The Rev. Emily C. Hassler (retired)
Buena Vista, CO
Thank you for the new understanding of “refinement” as found in Jimmy Carter.
Perhaps, the eating of peanuts could be undertaken in honour of him and his leadership,
his guidance and guardianship.
To him, Peace is beholdened, embodied, and embedded.
And Praise to the Sacred Ways of Wonder and Wisdom