Archive for October, 2004

Yeah, so I’m inconsistent to when I post. I really want to have something I think is worth talking about. This weekend, MJ and I spent some time at Intervarsity @ ISU’s 50th anniversary celebration and it got me thinking. I was watching some dear people who were in the chapter in the past few decades talk about what God has done in their life since IV (some are now past retirement age, some have grown children, and all are at different stages in life). It was really insightful to see such a myriad of people talk about their experiences with God and know that we have the same base.

Interesting as well was talking with my peers (all or most of whom are now entering their 30′s); conversation with us now revolved around new or somewhat new children and the related mishaps that occurr with them. We’re now all beginning to enter a period now that I’m considering labeling ‘The Long Boom’ (not copyrighted ); this is a period of life where essentially ‘you’re there’. There is now expectations of reaching 21 and being ‘legal’ (doesn’t matter if you do anything with that or not) or being 22 and being out of school, or heck, even reaching the big 3-0. All of these milestones are slowly being passed and there’s seemingly not alot left to reach short of retirement. I know I’m silly talking about that that way, but think about it, for the majority of my life up until this point there have been goals. If it was 4, it was all about starting school, or high school, or being ‘in college’. being ‘legal’, getting married, etc. For the past 30 years of my life there was ‘a goal’ to wait for getting older. That’s a long time to have those. Now they’ve past and the thought is – what’s next?

For me, the answer that I’m slowly discovering is this season of my life is about consistency. It’s about continuing to take risks and be obedient regardless of my situation. If I were to write a credo for the next decade, words like ‘risk’, ‘change’, and being faithful to the calling that God has brought me to. I want to be 40 and look back on the past decade with the same affection I have had for my 20′s. I realize that priorities change and you have a different focus, but I want to make sure I didn’t get so dulled to the world around me that I let the next 10 years slip past me. I think it’s too easy to be at this point and not see any goals to work toward and these years can just vanish – not what I want.

The most comparable thing for me right now is a mixset by a DJ. Mixsets, for those of you that are unfamiliar, are long stretches of music ‘mixed’ together; usually these contain multiple songs by different people and can contain special moments within them that the DJ uses to make his mix into a unique work of art. The thing about mixsets is that they’re long…really long. Where a typical song on the radio goes 3 -4 minutes, mixsets can go as long as 2 hours. The thing is that you have to be attentive the whole way through – there are moments 30-40 minutes in that are just phenomenal – that are worth the wait and that show you why you’re there. Sure the mixset usually starts off strong, but it’s the middle that the DJ uses to capture people’s attention; it’s the moments that you can either fall into a haze and start not paying attention to the music or you can dance your heart out; it is the long boom.

I believe our lives are somewhat similar; that God is our DJ and that he has our lives mapped out. There are stretches coming up for me that are unique and can show God’s creativity when he causes events to happen in my life. I just need to make sure that I’m paying attention.

luv,

–pete

p.s. the picture is from our reunion this weekend – it’s one that has my some of my friends from college in it.