… 31.
31 is 31. And I remember thinking how old people in their 30’s were. And here I am. Into my 3rd decade.

I feel… I don’t know. The same. Yet different. Older and more mature, but still laughing at fart jokes and silly Internet memes.

I feel like I have accomplished nothing, but at the same time, I feel tremendously blessed.

I mean, I thought that by 31, my life would look a different than the way it is right now… at the same time, I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.
Weird, huh?

I thought, by the age of 31, I’d have about two kids. But, here at 31, I have none.
At the age of 24, I thought I’d want to do youth ministry for the rest of my life.
At the age of 28, I felt that I wanted to distance myself from youth ministry.
At the age of 31, I’m still heavily involved in youth ministry. There are moments I dread. There are moments I absolutely love. And thankfully, the moments of love far outweigh the other ones. 🙂
I thought, surely by 31, I’ll be done with all the ordination stuff.
Here I am, stressing over the papers. Again.

So, in my personal goals, I’m really nowhere I thought I’d be.
But in God’s plan, I feel like I’m exactly where I am supposed to be.

I can honestly say that my trust is fully in God regarding my future.
Sure, I’m curious about what’s going to happen.
Yea, I stress myself out by trying to control things about the road ahead that I don’t really have control over.
But for the most part, I know that this is where God wants me. I know that these moments of my ministerial career is a time of learning and being groomed into a pastor God created me to be.

This is just a long-winded and roundabout way of saying that I’m tremendously blessed.
I’m blessed that I have a job that I love and work with people that I care about.
I’m blessed to have a wonderful family.
I’m blessed to have most of my friends.
I’m simply blessed.

So, thank you everyone for your birthday wishes.
It’s going to be an awesome year!