This morning I celebrate a new personal best. It could be measured in a number of ways. Today marks 21,915 days (including leap year days) of life. Or I could say I’m celebrating 20 years of life — for the third time around. Or I could say I’ve broken into the realm of hexagenarians (but if you repeat that, make sure it’s spelled correctly!) Or I could just come out and state that today I turn 60 years old. No, let me rephrase that: 60 years of age. You are only “old” when you give in to that mental image.
I will say that I am surprised I’ve lived this long. I have not been particularly gentle on or cautious with my body and the joints and sinews do remind me of this carelessness. There have been a couple of times I wasn’t so sure my sojourn through this world wasn’t over. But God did not see fit to release me yet, so I stood up and walked on. In fact, today I am feeling better than I have in quite a while. To continue the analogy, there is a spring in my step. There are fewer pains to plague me, and I seem to have encountered a refreshing of the mind in the past week that has me once again humming and singing to myself, and to God, throughout the days. I credit that to the Holy Spirit, who is writhing around in me more than normal, holding out the promise of something good being about to happen.
Normally I don’t look forward to birthdays. I don’t hide from them either, just try to brush them off as merely another day. But this one is sort of a milestone. A personal best similar to when 200,000 miles rolls up on the odometer and the wheels haven’t fallen off. There is a sense of accomplishment in it that fuels my desire to make it to the next milestone. But today, I’ll take a few moments to relish this one and celebrate a little. Tomorrow I’ll set out on the trek toward 70.
