Today I turned 30!!!

I can hardly believe it!
  Today September 23^rd 2006 – I turned 30 years old.
  It seems so entirely strange to me.
  3 decades of me.
  Wow.
  30 seems so out there, so far away, so imposing, so old.
  I have never thought of myself actually being 30, and today I still can’t.
 
I mean 30 years seems like such a long time.
  And I feel like
I’ve hardly even lived.
 

30 to me is a big deal, it’s like a milestone or something.
  By the average life expectancy in America I am almost halfway to eternity.
  And that’s if I was in great health – which by the way I am not.
  Because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, if I were a Swazi citizen I would only have about 5 years to go.
  I am also about to reach another milestone in my life.
  In February I will have known Jesus for 10 years.
  
    

 
Milestones ought to make one think.
  It sure has made me think.
  Like what kind of life have I lived, and what kind of life will I live in the future.
 
  

So how have I chosen to live at 30?
  Well, today I am in the state of Georgia (which is a foreign place to this northerner) I have been at AIM headquarters this past week helping with the training of some mission teams that are about to head out.
  I am staying with my good friends Ben & Janeen Messner, and this morning we had a great breakfast together with some other friends that are in town.
  We then all watched the last episode of the second season of LOST…we were trying to gear up for the start of season 3 taking place this Wednesday…I can hardly wait!!!
  I am addicted to the show, even though it constantly frustrates me.
  A few of us then shared some music for each other from our eclectic I-tunes and Napster collections-Janeen has such great taste and I can always count on her for something cool.
  I played some African love songs for them, and I really missed my girlfriend Zwakele and started to cry.
   

It was a great morning.
  The kind of morning one wants to have on their birthday; a great time with friends.
  Community, and healthy community at that, is the kind of life that I want to experience.  It will be a priority for my next 30 years and beyond.
 

 
I called Zwakele in Swaziland…I told her that I loved her about 80 times I think.
  Life is too short not to.  Everyone left for AIM headquarters and I stayed to take some time.
  I went the introspective route.  I worked out in the apartment complex’s weight room, did some laundry, and then took a dip in the pool.
  It was such a refreshing time of quiet with the Lord.  Throughout the afternoon I kept coming back to:  “I can’t believe I am 30!”