THE BIG FOUR-OH

Well, its my last day of being in my 30’s, and by tomorrow my status as an icon of youth will have receded like a middle-aged hairline! Or, as Agent Smith put it to Neo, “You hear that Mr. Anderson?... That is the sound of inevitability... It is the sound of your death...”

Cheerful!

But as we all know, Smith ends up coming off worst in that encounter, and despite the fact that – shockingly – I was still in my 20’s when The Matrix came out, death holds no fear for followers of The One; so neither should middle-age!

Last year I posted a whole series of reflections on turning 40 on The Leaders Poole blog. One was a series of reflections on ten things John Maxwell says leaders should do before reaching 40, and the other comments about 15 observations made after 40 years of Christian ministry by my father. Scanning through those posts again recently was both encouraging and challenging.

The passing of a decade always feels a significant moment. I don’t recall what I did for my tenth birthday but remember it felt a big deal to hit double figures. The eve of leaving my teens was spent on a Scottish hillside where I had hitchhiked with a friend while at Newcastle University for a spot of walking. My 30th birthday was spent in Eastbourne where I was leading a youth event called re.vive@thebeach. (It was cutting edge to use an email address style title back then!). After a day of activities on Eastbourne seafront about 1,000 of us went back to the King’s Church building where we watched England beat Germany 1-0 in the European Championships (Alan Shearer got the goal – how England could do with a striker of his caliber in this World Cup…). Tomorrow I shall be celebrating with a barbeque with my Life Group.

They say that life begins at 40, and as my family is generally fairly long-lived all things being equal I will probably see another four decades roll by. Hopefully my experience of life so far means that the coming decades will be lived with greater maturity and with growing faith – and with increased fruitfulness. Or as the Psalmist puts it

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.