Bring it on, 30!

I've been thinking this week about how I can't wait to turn 30. This is probably an odd thing for someone to think because most people dread turning 30. I've just been thinking about how awful my 20s have been and how I can't wait for them to be over. It's not that I think my life will magically be perfect when I turn 30, but I have a sense that things will be different. Calmer. More stable.

I know your 20s are a very necessary decade, and there's no real way to avoid them. Most of us graduate from college in our 20s. We get our first jobs and at the same time try to figure out what we want to do with the rest of our lives. Some of us get married and have children. Some of us agonize over why we haven't gotten married and had children. Many of our beliefs about the world and society around us are cemented. Some of us become Republicans, others become Democrats, and even a few of us might become dirty rotten Socialists. Some of us decide we don't care one way or the other. Many of us find or lose our faith in our 20s. Another group of us decides they don't belive in anything at all. Most of us discover what the real world is really about. We experience life. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

So where does that leave us when we turn 30? I would hope that the experiences I've had in my 20s will have better helped me to figure out who I am, who God is, and who everyone else is. I aspire to have a firm system of beliefs and opinions by then, and a firm understanding of why I chose that system and what it means. Many of the big decisions we have to make in life will have been made by then (where to live, what to do, who to do it with). I think by this age, most of us are ready to settle in and live life. However it comes.

I have imagined that when we turn 20, we get an empty, metaphorical toolbelt, and as we move through the years, the things we learn and experience arm us with the tools we need to live through and overcome whatever else we experience down the road. I think what we go through in our 20s fills up our metaphorical toolbelt. I would hope that, by the time I turn 30, my toolbelt is pretty well equipped. Maybe even with a few power tools. I'm not saying there won't be empty spots to add more tools later, but hopefully I'll have a good start. Maybe some of the tools won't be replaced, but upgraded. I also imagine that at some point in life, maybe shortly before I pass away, I will take off my toolbelt and show it to my children and my grandchildren (and if I don't have any children or grandchildren, maybe I'll show it to the neighborhood children or my many dogs and cats). I'll explain, with a certain gleam of wiseness in my old eyes, how I got each tool, and how it helped me to live life.

Old Me: Well, little Jimmy, this ring of keys right here represents all the times I got my heart broken before I met your grandfather. Each of these keys led me to really appreciate your grandfather when the Lord finally brought him to me. This ring of keys taught me that the secret to unlocking my own happiness in relationships with others was to love people the way Christ loved the church, and to seek out those who would love me the same way.
Little Jimmy: But what about those who didn't treat you good? What about those people?
Old Me: Ah, yes! Well, this saw right here represents the lessons I learned about helping, loving, and forgiving those in my life who maybe didn't do the same for me. We can't just cut those people off. We have to continue to help them, love them, and forgive them when they do evil against us or do things to hurt us.
Little Jimmy: What about this power drill? What's that for?
Old Me: That represents God's power in our life. I learned very early in my 20s that by trying to do life on my own, without God's help, I was like someone trying to use an electric drill without plugging it in. When you plug the power of the Lord into your life, you can get a lot done, a lot quicker.

I don't want to sound like a Lifetime movie or an after school special, but this is really how it all plays out in my head.

I often wonder how I'll feel when I'm 80, assuming I live that long. I'm only 26, but I feel like I've already lived so much life. It gives you a lot more respect for old people, when you think about it. It puts in perspective how much wiser older people are, how much more they've experienced. Well, most of them are wiser, some of them are just crazy. I hope I end up wiser and not crazier.

Yes, I'm going to throw a big party when I'm 30. There will be a big banner that will hang from the ceiling that will say, "Goodbye 20s! Good riddance!" Of course, I might find myself doing the same thing when I turn 40 . . . let's hope not.