Reflections ...

In less than a week, I am turning 35—I can hardly believe it, although I have to admit I am starting to feel it. As I was growing up, my parents used to say something like "The older you get, the faster the time goes." I didn’t believe them at all then, but I know now just how right they were! All I need to do to confirm the old adage is to look at how big my nephews and nieces are getting! Man, my parents must feel really old sometimes when they look at me!!

Anyway, I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the more birthdays become a time for reflection. I can honestly say I don’t have any glaring regrets, and more importantly, I can clearly see the hand of God in my life. Even before I came to know him as my Savior, I had a distinct feeling that he had “picked me” to be a part of his team! Cool huh? But since then, what a ride!

The last year has been particularly interesting, as I have tried to settle back into a more “normal” life in SC. After spending ’06 and ’07 in FL, and all over the rest of the world, it has been kind of weird that I have been in one place for the last year. I moved back to SC one year ago as of March 1, 2009, and I have to confess that things are much different one year later than I would have ever imagined them to be. To tell the truth, I didn't really know what to expect.

There was a time—in the not too distant past—when I thought that all I would ever do really well was something in construction. I still enjoy working with my hands, but my knees and back thank me that I don’t have to:).

I have a great job—Web Content Editor for www.sim.org—that I really enjoy, and that pushes my present abilities to the limit more days than not. Trying to express in words what God is doing on the other side of the world is less easy when you are not a “front-line” observer. But I enjoy the new challenges that my job brings, and in a time where so many people are either jobless or afraid of losing their jobs, it feels good to work for a Christian organization that is doing everything it can to keep people working.

As I look back I can see how God has orchestrated my life to bring me to this point—a supportive family, solid Christian friends, a Bible-based church, experiencing the broader world through traveling, and getting to know and work with people from very different cultures than my own—it’s really cool to see how everything has had meaning and significance, and shapes my life today.

As I go forward, I hope turning 35 will not only be a reminder of what God has done, but that it will also be an impetus for me to move forward like he is not finished with me yet!