How Does it Feel To Be Turning Thirty?

When some loved ones today asked how it felt to be turning thirty, the richness in my heart overflowed. I see men all the time turn thirty without having been given the things I have: a wife, two children, a house, a job I love, a great church, and a few guitars. But when I look at those men, I can't really say that I'm any wiser than they are. Most of them are wiser than me. Yet, on top of an inheritance bigger than the stars and a salvation more valuable than life, God has given me rich blessing in this life. Every day there is unmerited grace upon unmerited grace. Why?

It's already pouring in. Not yet my birthday, and so far three cakes have found their way into our home. Gifts pour in from people who shouldn't love me but do. Cards and calls are coming in from people I've hurt, but they don't seem to remember that. My sister, herself the victim of much torment by my devious hands, even decided I should have a nephew as a birthday present!


You can't turn 30, or any significant age, without looking back a little. And when I do, I have to admit that it doesn't make sense. I hope as you see our lives, either from next door or through the window of this blog, that it doesn't make sense to you either. How did such a young fool, with all the character flaws you know I have, fall into such a rich, full life? How did I get Emily for a wife? Or a job like mine at a church that could have hired anybody in the middle of a recession? How did I make such adorable offspring? There's really only one rational explanation: God is exceedingly good to many who don't deserve it. And he wants you to know it.

What can I say, but that He just likes to do that.

Many of you have treated me the same way, imaging through your own lives the same grace. Your love is a treasure to me, but not as much as the lessons you have taught me about God's grace.

So I go to bed to night with a small glimpse of how rich I really am, and God-willing I will wake up tomorrow a thirty year old. Life itself it a vapor, and God may take it all away with the morning mist, but He has still given me Himself, and He will still be good. Any way you stack it, I'm a rich man. So, to answer the question, it feels rich enough to make me cry.

Praise God for his unending goodness.