Birthday Musings

Today is my birthday. I turned 25 this morning. I turned 25 at 6:38 this morning to be exact. The quarter century mark. I can officially start my quarter-life crisis now. I think my quarter-life crisis started about three years early, so I'm actually "over" it and feeling pretty good. Not that I don't still have my moments, but all in all this past year has been one of the best. A big part of what I mean by that is that I've been moving forward spiritually over the past year (finally). When it comes to God, you are either walking with Him or walking in disobedience to Him. The latter is not a pleasant place to be and I'm extremely grateful for the work God has done in me over the past year or so. I've spent quiet a bit of time reflecting on where I am and where I want to be and also who I am and who I want to be.
Traditionally, most people set goals around the beginning of the year, but I think birthdays are a good time. And the older I get, the more reflective I seem to get around my birthday. The past year and a half has included some significant changes for me ( moving, making a decision not to continue with school, starting a new job in a field I never imagined myself working in, discovering that I loved the new job, regaining my footing spiritually, and parting ways with a couple of close friends). I'm looking forward to the upcoming year with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. Anticipation because I am excited about where I am and the good things God will continue doing in me. Anxiety because I am not good at relinquishing control to God and I still struggle on many fronts.
Last year I was convinced that I needed to devote my time and attention to discovering my calling (and by that I meant only my career path). That initial desire has led to some unexpected realizations. While I wanted to know "what" I should be, God seemed more interested in showing me "who" I should be. As a result, my definitions of "calling" and "success" have taken a much needed beating. I am now convinced that the bulk of my "calling" is to simply live out my faith. I am "called" to live in light of the committment I made to Christ. And success will ultimately have more to do with faithfulness than dollars or degrees. This does not mean that God is not interested in our careers. It's just that whatever our vocational "calling" happens to be, it fits into the larger context of having our character shaped into Christlikeness and fulfilling God's purposes in our small corner (or cubicle) of the world.
I don't know that I intended for this post to be a full-length article, so I'll wrap things up. I think somewhere in all of this I was supposed give a synopsis of my goals for the upcoming year, but I'll have to save that for another post, mainly because I haven't figured them out yet.