My Next Thirty Years

“I’d like to take a moment, celebrate my age / the ending of an era, the turning of a page…” or so goes the first line of the Tim McGraw song who’s title I borrowed for this post.  Now he never says in the song that he’s turning 30, but I think it’s more than likely.

And I’m turning 30 on Sunday! I’ve been making the resolution to “not stay up so late” for several years now, and clearly, it’s not working out too well.  Salads aren’t really a problem for me though, I like salads. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go listen to the song already!)

So while 30 isn’t exactly old or anything, there is something about 30 that pushes one firmly and irrevocably into the grown-up camp at least from the perspective of many teens, though many of the then junior highers labeled me as “old” at 25 (since most of them are now in college, I am feeling somewhat older now thank you very much, but at 25, not so much).

And while I pause on the threshold of this irrevocable adulthood, I thought I’d share some thought’s on growing older that have been running through my head the last couple of weeks.

I recently grabbed a bottle of wine that while decent, definitely tasted “young” when first opened.  It improved with airing, but possibly would have been better next year (maybe it was just the wine and that as good as it got, but I digress).  New wine to put it generally, tastes “sharper” than older wine while the older stuff, or the wine that’s drunk at the proper age, since that is different for different varieties, is more mellow, rounded, and has much more depth of flavor.

Now, it’s not exactly revolutionary to compare growing older with wine, it’s a comparison that’s been there, done that, got the t-shirt, magnet, cutsie decorating signs, aprons, birthday cards, and so on.

There was, however, a specific thought that popped into my head as I sipped away.   When we are young we’re prone to passions and extremes, or, at least, I was.  We’re right, invincible, and charging full-steam ahead on whatever it is we feel strongly about today.  Growing older ought to see a depth of flavor and insight, less rashness, and an overall graciousness that develops as we finally get over those “adolescent fears” (song again for you non-country listeners).

And while the passion remains, and indeed, grows and deepens, it does so with a depth of character not indicated by the impulsiveness and sometimes melodramatic dogmatism of our youth.  As we grow more comfortable with who we are, we are free to listen and seek to understand without becoming defensive.  We are free to extend gracious welcomes and put others at ease, caring for them and respecting them without either compromising our own core beliefs nor rejecting them for theirs.  In other words, we are free to be more fully human, the way we were intended to be when we were created.

Moving into this requires first an understanding of who we are as God’s beloved children, loved not for what we can do, but simply for who we are. Loved no more nor less for our accomplishments or failures, simply loved beyond all comprehension by the one who loved us enough to imagine us into being in the first place.

Now, this is a picture, an ideal if you will, I’m not trying to say I’ve suddenly arrived at this state.  It’s where I want to go from here as I move forward into my next thirty years. Actually, there is no arrival, it’s a continual process, a constant becoming.

And now that wine can be shipped legally to Tennessee, I’d be happy to send my mailing address to any who wish to send me a bottle, case or three this next week