Pushin' Forty

I'm about to turn thirty-nine in just a few months, and the realization that I'm pushin' forty has been creeping up on me for some time now.

I can't really claim mid-thirties anymore, my twenties are somewhere back on the side of the road half forgotten, and college seems like it happened in a different life-time!  Just this past July, I noticed that I had more grey hair in my beard than I could easily count... the funny thing is, I thought to myself, "cool".

It's funny being a part of my generation at this stage of life.  I'm not quite a dead-head, and didn't see Hendrix play the national anthem, but I remember Hank Aaron hitting one out of the park at Arlington stadium toward the end of his career.  I'm not a child of the 50's or the 60's, but still live in the afterwash of the weird combined impact of both eras.  Computers were a brand new thing when I went to college, but I love my macbook pro!  I spend half my journaling online, and half in a leather-bound book that would fit in a study a hundred years ago.  It's cool and weird all at the same time.

Last week I read something cool that put things into perspective for me.  I read about the time when Moses came out to address the people of Israel before they went into the Promised Land of Canaan.  He was passing the torch of Leadership to Joshua, and suddenly it hit me that even Joshua was getting a little "long in the tooth" himself!  It seems that Joshua was between 60 & 80 (if the quick math in my head serves me well) when he picked up leading all of Israel... and suddenly, I felt young again!

I can imagine relating to Joshua in my youth, when every turn felt as though I was about to enter the Promised Land, only to find that life, and ministry, are a long journey home.  I can think of times of my life that felt like wondering in a desert, and suddenly realize that Joshua had to do that with the children of Israel for far, far longer than I have ever experienced.  I think of my life now, even as I sit at my kitchen counter on my day off and type this on a beautiful, easy to use, computer, and realize how very blessed I am!

The days of charging wind mills long past, my life is one of walking with people... leading them to the God I know and have come to love and live for.  Individuals have become more important than movements; the latter serving the former instead of the other way around... and interestingly enough, I still get up in the mornings enthusiastic about giving my life to the movement of, the person of, the mission of God today.

Pushin' forty seems suddenly like a starting place, and something deep within me says that it was always supposed to be just that.

May the blessings of Christ be upon you today!

John