iRetire4Him Show 139: "You're Free"

Jim: You've tuned into iRetire4Him, a podcast dedicated to Christ followers all over the country seeking purpose in the retirement years, because your retirement years can be 30 years of purpose-driven, fully funded ministry, years of making impact in ways and places you never imagined. And I'm your host, Jim Brangenberg. Please check us out online at iRetire4Him.com. That's I retire the number 4 him.com.

When you retire, do you always have to have a plan? Or is planning on being obedient to the call of the Lord plan enough? Today we head off to outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to talk with Paul Nichols about following the Lord in retirement, day by day. Paul Nichols, welcome to iRetire4Him.

Paul Nichols: Amen. My biggest thing was that God let me know when I asked about this retirement. With the United Auto Workers, you have a 30 and out that you can retire, and so I had put my 30 in. I said to the Lord about what should I do? And he give me two words. [00:01:00] He said, you're free.

Jim: Nice. So how long have you been retired?

Paul Nichols: I've been over 20 years now.

Jim: 20 years. Oh my word. Alright, so you just said it, you retired from the United Auto Workers, so you did 30 years at United Auto Workers. Now, which assembly plant were you working in?

Paul Nichols: I was working at the glass plant, a Tulsa Ford glass plant in Tulsa. They had, I think it's half broken air and half Tulsa.

Jim: Okay, so you're working for Ford, so I'm assuming you're driving a Ford today then?

Paul Nichols: Oh, I've got a Ford truck that's got 328,000 miles on it.

Jim: Wow. Just barely broken in. Alright, so let's talk about, so when you were looking at retirement, you said 30 and out. So you knew that when you started at 18 you were gonna be 30. You're only gonna be 48 years old when you got outta work. Was it something like that? Did you start right outta high school?

Paul Nichols: No, I moved out here to Oklahoma in 75, so I didn't start there till I was 28.

Jim: Okay.

Paul Nichols: And and then I retired [00:02:00] at 58.

Jim: All right. So at 58 years old, when you were heading into retirement, you knew what you were retiring from all those years at the Ford plant. Did you know what you were retiring to?

Paul Nichols: I just knew that it was an option that I could, and when God told me, you're free, that was good enough for me. So I put in my resignation that I was retiring and another fellow right alongside of me, that we worked closely together for 21 years, he said, I'm retiring too. So both of us retired together and I was doing chaplaincy. I did funerals and weddings for all the people that worked and been to the prisons and whatever else. I did that for 15 years while I was working.

Jim: Wait, so while you were working, were you an official chaplain within the, within Ford?

Paul Nichols: Within the UAW. Within the UAW.

Jim: Okay. All right.

Paul Nichols: And the company honored me, so I appreciate that. I was [00:03:00] considered one of their spiritual leaders. I just, that was very humbling.

Jim: That's awesome. So how did you get into chaplaincy? So you're saying you started chaplaincy 15 years before you retired, right?

Paul Nichols: My president come to me and ask me if I would go up north, me and my wife, and see what this chaplaincy thing was all about. So I said I'd be honored. So I flew up there, him and my wife, that was all paid for. They were meeting in a hotel. So I got there and found out these were chaplains in the United Auto Workers all over the nation.

Jim: Wow. I didn't even know they had chaplains in the United Auto Workers Union. That's fantastic.

Paul Nichols: Yeah. So I got there and I come back and my union president said, Paul, you're our new chaplain. I said who else? He said, there was no one else. I said, oh my goodness. What an honor. And so I'm pastoring a church at the time.

Jim: You were pastoring a church, working a line at the Glass [00:04:00] plant for Ford and being a chaplain within United Auto Workers, the local one there outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma? That sounds like a lot of things going on in your life before you retired.

Paul Nichols: Yeah, in one year's time. I realized - that was in 1990 when they, when I became their chaplain - and in one year's time, I was overloaded. So God said, the church and the money and the building and all the labor, he said, you said it was mine. And I said, yes, Lord. And I resigned from pastoring and been doing chaplaincy ever since.

Jim: Wait a minute. Ever since you said you retired 20 years ago, didn't you retire from being a chaplain?

Paul Nichols: I worked alongside the retiree chaplain and then he passed away, and so then I became it to all the retirees and for about six months I didn't go to the plant. And there was a little Bible study that had been started in [00:05:00] 93, and we would have prayer together and have requests. And then the one fellow said, would you meet with the union officials over at the office after you all? So after six months, God said, you can go to that Bible study.

So I hooked back up and started going to the plant six o'clock every Tuesday morning and had a little Bible study and request and had prayer together. And we were praying for our plant. They wanted to close that plant back in 1992. And so this went on for quite some time.

Jim: How many local UAW workers are there in your area of the country?

Paul Nichols: There's the spirit, which is local 9 52, which has to do with air aircraft. And then there's a bus plant there and there is a retiree group that is, they're just all retired. They closed that plant down. And then there's a [00:06:00] retiree group in Oklahoma City. And so I, I'm in contact with all of them.

Jim: So it's a lot of people then, what you're saying. So when you retired almost 20 years ago, did you ever imagine you'd be so busy in retirement? Or were you anticipating that life was gonna be one long vacation?

Paul Nichols: Yeah I guess that's what you'd think, but my heart was tied to chaplaincy. There's no doubt about it. I love the people and so many had given their heart and life to God. It's a humbling experience when you work among people and they change their life and tell you that I had something that they needed and they wanted. Even our plant manager give his heart and life to God, our union president give his heart and life to God.

I can't explain from pastoring to chaplaincy was so rewarding. And I fell in love with the people and they fell in love with [00:07:00] me. And you're in their home. Sometimes I felt like I smoked a couple packs of cigarettes (laugter) because you can't walk in somebody's home to tell 'em not to smoke. But I told God he'd have to take care of that.

Jim: I get it. I get it. I literally just got off a fire department call that I was in a house where I felt like I smoked a half a pack of cigarettes, not the whole pack today. And so I get that. Chaplaincy - you get thrown in a bunch of places where you never expected to. It's not all clean and neat, like the front pew at the church on Sunday. Talk to us about chaplaincy. What is it, when you're as a chaplain to retired UAW workers, and I'm assuming you get to interact with people that are still working too. Isn't that true?

Paul Nichols: Oh, yes.

Jim: Yes. So what does it look like to be a chaplain?

Paul Nichols: You've got, your talons were in the people that you work with, so you naturally have younger ones that are still there that haven't retired. So they know who you are so they call you.

Jim: What are they calling you for though? They calling you to catch up on baseball scores or they got something else in [00:08:00] mind?

Paul Nichols: No, they call me to do a funeral or to do a wedding or to be able to go to the hospital to see their relative or their grandma, grandpa, all the family, and then let you know that their son is in prison. And so I went and took care of those things and stayed in contact with them. And I played on a softball team from the time. I did in the church leagues when I was in my thirties.

Jim: Woah, nothing more brutal than softball church leagues, they get more brutal than most secular leagues sometimes. So the softball, that gives you an opportunity for some chaplaincy there too. Did you ever imagine - and just everybody listening, if you haven't been a chaplain before, understand the word chaplain and the word pastor, those are the same word, because that's what you're doing. You're pastoring people, you're being there for people in the time of crisis. Paul, what kind of crises have you seen as a chaplain?

Paul Nichols: I've been there when death has happened. I've been there with [00:09:00] suicide. I've been there when their hearts were broken and divorces and things of that sort and been able to help some of 'em to get through and to keep it together. And those were the people I worked with.

So had others that I was gonna do a wedding for and told 'em about the love of God and counseled them through, and then I've had 'em drop their head on the table and give their heart and life to God before marriage. So I've had great privileges, just more than I ever dreamed or ever thought of.

Jim: What was your toughest, what was your toughest day as a chaplain?

Your son gave me a little hint, because he was proud of, he's proud of all the work. I'm friends with Paul's son, Jerry, and Paul and Jerry and I are in a Bible study, a weekly Bible study that we call the band of brothers from around the country. And his son Jerry said that one day you came home from a man's house and you looked a little down because his wife had died from cancer and then some other things happened.

Why don't you tell that [00:10:00] story?

Paul Nichols: The last one that I'd done, and maybe that's what Jerry is referring to - me and him worked together. We retired together. And then he called me and said his wife had took her life. And so he wanted to know if I would do that service. And that was probably one of the toughest because me and him were just like brothers on the job.

 I knew what he was doing, he knew what I was doing. And we just knew each other and could work side by side and get the furnace and everything working. We've been on trips together to take care of problems with the glass that went to other places and then they called us back 'cause they couldn't get the furnace started and me and Bill were in Paducah, Kentucky.

And they called and said, you've got to get back here. We had already worked 12 hours and so we got back and then got into a storm so we couldn't get in at the time, and we got [00:11:00] there, I don't know, probably got home at 3:30, laid down for an hour and a half and got up and went back to work at 5:30, knowing that the furnace, we had an obligation to get that glass to the assembly line.

So me and Bill got back there and got the furnace running and got it back together. And then the one fellow, he paid us 24 hours straight time and a half. You know what I mean? Because he knew what me and Bill had been through. So that was a blessing.

Jim: You've been retired for 20 years. Have you had any health issues that have gotten in the way of you being able to be a chaplain?

Paul Nichols: I really haven't, so I'm very thankful. I passed out at the gym and Jerry was with me, but after they checked everything out, I was dehydrated. I wasn't drinking until I got done my hour workout, then I'd go drink. But I have learned since then to drink in between.

Jim: Now we're talking drinking water of course. That's right. All right. So have you ever had a time where, is all of your chaplaincy work right [00:12:00] there in the Tulsa area? Or have you sometimes had to go to other cities?

Paul Nichols: Oh I've had to go to other cities, 186 miles away. So that's two times that or whatever else. And then sometimes in Oklahoma you do a funeral and then they've got a graveside a hundred miles away, so you can spend all day taking care of a funeral. And I've done that so.

Jim: Well in Oklahoma, that's like next door. Some guy owns that, a hundred miles. And then there's another guy that owns the next a hundred miles. So what have you learned about God during retirement? What is the biggest thing that you've learned about God in retirement that you hadn't had a chance to learn while you're still working?

Paul Nichols: To meet everyone right where they're at. Not as much as preaching the gospel to 'em, but just finding out what their need was and trying to be there to be able to help them. If they open a door, that's [00:13:00] one thing. But I learned as a chaplain to just be where they're at, say what needs to be said, and just meet 'em where they're at and love them. And they just love you. And I haven't preached any one church or any one doctrine, but I've just been there and been able to live the life before 'em. So they have trusted me.

Jim: So what have you learned about yourself?

Paul Nichols: Oh man. I've learned to love the unlovely, those that I told about two men when I went to that plant. I told God I could care less if they split hell wide open. And God saved both of those men. So I found out that God was bigger than I was and he could change a heart. Just amazing. Myself included, I [00:14:00] never dreamed I would be in these positions or have this honor, 'cause I ended up becoming the chairman for all the chaplains across the nation. So within the UAW.

Jim: Across the nation you're the chairman of all the chaplains?

Paul Nichols: I was. When I retired, I resigned.

Jim: Okay.

Paul Nichols: They closed our plant in 2011, so I've been their retirees chaplain to just reach out to them. Our union hall's not there. They sold it out. So I just take care of the people. We have a luncheon at the last Tuesday of the month. We go to a breakfast usually on the, on a Thursday morning with a lot of the employees. They give me money to be able to buy Bibles so that when someone passes, we can still provide the Bibles that used to be provided by the union. But since we're no longer operable and the plant's been [00:15:00] closed, the people just still give me money, and I buy Bibles every so often.

Jim: And so if somebody is listening today and they're a retired member of the UAW or maybe they're still working in the UAW and they're thinking about retiring, is there a website they can go to find out about chaplaincy? Like, how they can get ahold of a chaplain? Is it right on the UAW website? Or how do, how can they find out?

Paul Nichols: Yeah, right on the UAW website.

Jim: Okay. All right, so closing out the podcast. It's great to hear your story. What's really fun is to see, you had no idea what was ahead of you when you retired, but God's kept you busy, hasn't he, Paul?

Paul Nichols: Absolutely. I played softball till I was 70, and I've been a chaplain on the softball field where people have, I remember one fellow that was down in his back, he went to get a ball and collapsed on the field. I run out there to him and had prayer with him. And when we got back to the dugout, [00:16:00] he said, who prayed for me? And I finally confessed up and he said, God healed me instantly. He played the rest of the game, just amazing what God can do if you're available.

 (Jim laughing)

Jim: That's awesome. Alright, so the people listening today, some of them are pre-retirees and some of 'em are retirees. Speak some words of encouragement to those that are looking for purpose in their retirement. Maybe they've had some purposeless days and maybe they're looking to retirement and they're freaked out because they don't know what God's gonna have 'em doing. Speak some encouragement, Paul.

Paul Nichols: I would say that. I never missed a beat when I retired, and that was because of chaplaincy and playing softball. My wife will tell you it was no change for me, but I realized that some workers, when they retire, they just go sit in a chair. Please don't do that. Just keep busy with your church or with your community. I'm part of a ministerial alliance and I'm also on the water board in our district.

So [00:17:00] there's things you can do in retirement that you're more equipped and more available than ever. Man, don't just sit down and quit. Enjoy your family too, man. I've got three boys and my wife. We're on our 60th this year. In December will be 60 years we've been married.

Jim: Wow. Congratulations. What's your wife's name? Dorothy. Wow. So you're saying shout out to Dorothy then, is what you're saying? Because she's been putting up with you for 60 plus years. That's incredible.

Paul Nichols: Yeah. I've known her for 64 years.

Jim: So you guys met in high school?

Paul Nichols: I was 19 and she graduated in 65 and I married her in December of that year. She was supposed to go as a missionary to Cuba, and then that door was closed in Cuba, so I snatched her up.

Jim: So you have Fidel Castro to thank for your marriage. (laughter)

That's not a story that many people could tell, that you have [00:18:00] fidel Castro to thank for Dorothy. I like that. That's good. Paul Nichols, I love your story. I love that God is using you in incredible ways and I have no doubt that you'll run that race to the very last breath of your life. Thanks for sharing your story today on iRetire4Him, Paul.

Paul Nichols: God bless. Amen.

Jim: You've been listening to iRetire4Him with your host, Jim Brangenberg. I'm a Christ follower and I'm planning my retirement journey so that at the end I can say iRetire4Him.