Up… But Not Over!
It just hit me the other day, I’m going to be 30. On Saturday, I’ll have lived for 3 decades and through 6 presidents. The year I was born, the average price of gas was 86 cents, a house $58,000 and a car $3,500. Saddam Hussein was elected president, the Post-it note and the 3-point shot were invented. When I was born, the Nobel Peace Prize was still given to people who deserved it… in 1979 that was Mother Teresa… but that’s a conversation for another post, ha.
Yeah, I know 30’s not that old and I’ve got a few years left, Lord willing. But it has prompted me to stop and take note of where I am in life, both physically and spiritually. I remember when I was 15 thinking I had all of this time to do so much. 15 years later I’m sitting at 30 with so much to be thankful for, but also with some regrets and sense of urgency to change some things.
Last week I was thinking about the Bucket List movie with Jack Nickolson & Morgan Freeman and it got me thinking. What do I want to do, what do I want to accomplish before I “kick the bucket”. Why wait until I’m 65 to start taking on my list? Realistically, I know that there’s just some things that will have to wait until I’m older (i.e. traveling to different countries), but there’s a lot I can do now, with nothing stopping me but myself.
Age is an interesting thing. We can’t wait for it when we’re young, we want it to stop once it’s arrived and we try to fight it off the older we get. In many aspects I wish I could already turn back the clock. I wish I could go back and change some decisions I’ve made, I wish I could have the innocence and childlike faith I once had… with no worries or cares in the world.
I look in my little boy’s eyes and see that complete and total amazement at literally everything. It takes nothing more than looking at his own little hand to keep him completely in awe. Wisdom may come with age, but so does ingratitude, apathy and forgetting to even notice the everyday miracles of God. When is the last time I looked up at the sky to see the stars, watched a sunset, or took notice of all the intricacies of God’s creation surrounding me? It’s been awhile.
So on the eve of my 30th birthday, I’m praying that God would restore my joy in Him and in His creation. That He would renew my childlike faith and that He would help me live each day as if it were my last. And most importantly (and most difficult), to live for His glory each day, not my own.
I Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
