I had retired officially after forty years of active ministry in churches in Oregon and California. But in retirement, and at the age of seventy-five, I was invited by the pastor and elders of a church in California to join their staff as minister of visitation. I understand that in their invitation was a concern that older folks who could no longer be as active as they might have been would not be lost or forgotten.

In three-and-a-half years of this ministry, I became better acquainted with some whom I had already known and came to know many whom I had not known before. Occasionally, one or another of these friends would, in the course of conversation, utter the words, "Why am I still here?"

This book deals with that question, what might be behind its being voiced, and the answer or answers to it.