Reflections on 10 Years Gone and Dreams for 10 Years to Come

I turn 30 today.  Three decades I have been on the planet.  Almost 1/3 of a century.

If I'm honest, I'm not sure how I feel about that.  Or perhaps it would be better to say I wasn't sure how I felt about that.  At 30, I'm not exactly where I dreamed I would be.

Then I thought back over where I was 10 years ago today and realized that the last 10 years have been nothing short of amazing.

On the day I turned 20, I was still in college.  I had no degree.  I had never worked in a church.  I had a girlfriend but nothing else.

Between 20 and 30:

• I got married to a ridiculously beautiful and smart and funny and sexy woman.
• I had two amazing children who have transformed my life.
• I got a Bachelor's degree.
• I got a Master's degree.
• I served as an Associate Pastor
• I served as a Lead Pastor
• I experienced major transformation from God.
• I lived in Bourbonnais, IL; Overland Park, KS; Merillville, IN; Lafayette, IN; Oklahoma City, OK; and Logansport, IN.
• I bought a house.
• I sold a house (after a lot of heartache).
• I survived having my house broken into.

There's probably a whole lot more I could list, but that's enough to get the point across, which is this: I said that I am not where I dreamed I would be at 30, but the truth is that my life is much better than I dreamed it would be at this point.

The temptation for me has always been to look at what I haven't accomplished and be disappointed and slide into thinking that I have accomplished nothing.  The list up there puts the lie to that.  Yes, there are things that I thought would have happened by the time I turned 30 - ordination, for one.  Yet in spite of those things, the last 10 years of my life have been amazing.  Throughout it all I have seen God's hand and experienced God's guidance - even if I have to admit that sometimes that guidance was not exactly what I wanted to hear.


There is no doubt in my mind that the me I am today at 30 is better than it would have been had everything gone according to my plans.

With that in mind, then, I offer up the following dreams for the next 10 years of my life - fully recognizing that they may or may not come true but remaining confident that when I type an "I'm turning 40" blog entry, my life will have been just what it needed to be.

By 40:

• I would like to be even happier in my marriage than I am now.
• I would like to see my kids continue to grow into the awesome boy and girl they are becoming.
• I would like to have bought a house with my wife that we can stay in for 10+ years.
• I would like to never distance myself from God.
• I would like to complete a Master of Divinity degree.
• I would like to complete a Doctoral degree.
• I would like to have written a book (not necessarily published by 40, but at least written)
• I would like to be established as a Spiritual Director and/or Spiritual Formation pastor.
• I would like to be ordained.
• I would like to have traveled to England and/or Europe.

I don't think that's too much to ask, is it?

jB