36

I turn 36 today. I celebrated the morning by going out to a driving range to hit golf balls with a friend, there to discover a sport that I am even worse at than tennis. Seriously, who knew that hitting that little white ball could be so challenging? I'm hoping another 47 buckets of balls might make it so that I don't totally embarrass myself were I to actually go with a friend to an actual golf course.

Anyway, turning a year older always makes me turn reflective. Since I'm a Crohn's patient, I always consider myself lucky to turn another year with no major complications to life, but I'm realizing that it's highly possible I'm at the halfway point, which hardly seems possible. Life's days often pass slowly, but the years race by. And so I'm thinking today about what the next 36 years will bring.

My prayers are that they will bring...

36 more years of faithful service to Christ in which He is exalted in my speech, thought, conduct, and ministry such that when the final day comes, I hear "Well done."

36 more blessed years with Karen of learning to love her as Christ loved the Church and growing grey and soft physically while we grow stronger in love for each other.

36 more years of seeing my children embrace the faith of their father as their own (as I did), of doing each child's wedding ceremony, and of seeing my grandchildren raised to know the Lord from infancy.