Today Is Your Birthday

            Actually, today is my birthday.  I am now fifty-three years old.

            I’m not sure what a fifty-three-year-old is supposed to feel like, but I don’t feel like one.  My health remains good.  My energy level is still good.  I still have all my hair, and there’s still a good share of it that has not turned grey.  I need a little more rest than I used to, but not all that much more.  I have to say that, overall, things are pretty good.

            Sometimes, people are asked if they’d like to be young again.  Well, you can check with me again in a few years, but right now, the answer is no.  I’m actually quite a bit happier now than I was when I was young.  I’ve overcome my shyness to a large extent, and I’m much more at ease with people than I used to be.  I have an incredible wife now, one whom I cannot imagine living without.  There are all kinds of ways in which my life is much better than it was when I was young.

            That goes for my work as well.  I was not unhappy as a lawyer, but I am much happier as a pastor.  I feel now like I am doing the work I am supposed to do, the work God created me to do.  That’s not to say that I do it perfectly, of course.  I make plenty of mistakes.  Still, I feel that God wants me to be a pastor, and that as long as I keep praying and keep trying to get better, God will help me get better.

            I have no idea why God has blessed me this much.  I also don’t know what the future may hold.  I would like to remain a pastor the rest of my life.  I’d like to stay in the Wheatland Parish the rest of my life, too, although I know that in the United Methodist system, that’s pretty unlikely.  God, however, may have a different plan for me.  Six years ago, I had no idea I’d be where I am or that I’d be doing what I’m doing now.  Six years from now, who knows where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing?

            The answer to the above question, of course, is God.  God knows where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing.  My job is to stay open to going where God leads me and doing what God wants me to do.  That’s not always easy, especially when I think about how happy I am now.  Still, every time God has led me somewhere, it’s been to something better.

            Coming out of law school, I went to Pierre.  I made a lot of good friends, I made strides toward overcoming my shyness, and I met and married my wife.  I was very happy there and could see myself spending the rest of my life there.

            God, however, had a different plan, and led us to Wessington Springs.  I made a lot of good friends there and got involved in the community and in the church.  I was very happy there and could see myself spending the rest of my life there.

            God, however, had a different plan, and led me to the ministry.  We moved to The ARK in North Sioux City.  I made a lot of good friends there, and we did a lot of good things.  I was very happy there, too.  I knew I was unlikely to spend the rest of my life there, but I was hoping to spend many years there and could have been very happy doing so.

            God, however, had a different plan, and led us to the Wheatland Parish.  We’ve only been here six months, but we’ve already made a lot of good friends here.  We’ve got a lot of good things started in all three churches.  We’re very happy here.  As I said above, I could see myself spending the rest of my life here, although I know that’s very unlikely.

            The point is that, whatever the future holds, God is in it.  Every time I’ve thought I had a plan for my life, God has had a different plan, and a better plan.  I see no reason that should change.  So, on my birthday, my biggest birthday wish is that I continue to let God worry about the future, and that I remain open to following God’s plan.  God has never let me down yet, and I see no reason to think God will do so in the future.