30

Once upon a time, I had a blog. (You can access it here if you want). It lasted a few years and chronicled some very interesting years in my life. Post-secondary studies. Teacher’s college. My trip to the Bahamas. My first few years as a teacher. And anything and everything in between. The ups, the downs, the good, the funny, the strange, and sometimes even the bad.

But for some reason, I stopped writing. I’m still not sure why. I think things in life just got kinda tough, blah and difficult, and I didn’t want to face my own thoughts. Nor did I want to air my dirty laundry for the whole world to see.

And as the days stretched into weeks and months … it just seemed that much more pointless to start up again.

One would think that, with my recent cross-cultural, halfway-around-the-world move, it would have been a great time to start writing again. But … I didn’t. I had other things on my mind.

Like my cross-cultural, halfway-around-the-world move. Crazy, isn’t it?

But now, it’s 2 days before I turn 30 years old. I’ve been in and out of my new country for the past 9 months. And I’m entering the blogosphere once again and documenting my thoughts for anyone who happens to stumble upon it.

Why? Because I’m turning 30. I’m entering a new decade in my life, and I’m determined that it’s going to be great.

Most of my 20s were amazing. Amazingly hard, amazingly frustrating, amazingly different than anything I could have ever asked for or imagined. And it was all good. I learned a lot, grew a lot, and I can honestly say that my life is that much better because of all the experiences I went through. And it’s all the Father’s doing. Not mine. Because I would not have chosen this path. No way in H—E – double hockey sticks would I have chosen it. But it was what it was, and there’s nothing I can do about it now, except see the good that came from it, despite the … suckyness of the time. Actually, make that timeS.

29 was an especially rough year, and some aspects of that will linger into 30. And likely beyond as well. And there’s not too much I can do about that; it’s out of my control. And no amount of yelling, stomping around and punching walls will change that.

Still, I can determine now that 30 will be a year to remember. How do I know? Two wonderful men who lived a long time ago tell me that this, and every other year of my life that was and my life to be, will be good. I'm talking about Jeremiah and Paul. (cf. Jer. 29:11 and Rom. 8:28).

And that’s all there is to it.

So I’m going to start this year off with a bang. I’ve got some fun things planned with some really cool people. I’ll let you know how it all turns out …

By the way, I'm living the "Happily Ever After." And it's only the beginning ...