I’ll turn thirty years old this week. I’m not really afraid of the event, but it does seem to mark a significant milestone in the landscape that is my life.

As I reflect on the last decade, I realize that my twenties were centered around these major themes: marriage, education, family, faith, and leadership.

I married Kristen at 21 and have spent much of the last decade learning to invest in our marriage and friendship. The first few years the challenge was learning to
live with someone else. Then the next challenge was learning to not just co-exist, but really thrive in our marriage. Now we’re onto the latest challenge: children!

I completed my education - in just a shade under a decade - at 27. I took some breaks and got multiple degrees, but education was a central theme for the past decade. I still love learning, and would probably be a professional student if the pay was enough to support a family. I now consider myself a student of life, and am learning new things every day.

Our family grew to 3 toward the end of my twenties. We welcomed Isaac into our lives and haven’t stopped laughing since. We stopped sleeping, but at least we can laugh at it. (The name Isaac means “laughter” if you hadn’t guessed.) Isaac has been a tremendous blessing to our lives and I am amazed at how much my perspective on so many things has changed due to his arrival.

My faith was really stretched over my twenties. In good ways, and in ways that make me realize that I still have a lot to learn about how God sees us and how much he wants to restore the brokenness in our lives. Brennan Manning, John Ortberg, Dennis Wadley, my Dad, and Jeff Schaffer played tremendous roles in revealing the heart that God has for each of us. I used to think God was stuck on the good vs. bad list we all keep. I knew mentally that this wasn’t the case, but intellectual assent is very different than really knowing something. My twenties were a season of growing in my understanding of how deep God’s love really reaches, and how far he’s willing to go to reach me.

I began studying leadership in my spare time as a graduate student, and haven’t stopped since. As with the previous four themes, leadership looks to remain a central focus in my life. I’ve had the incredible opportunity to work on a software development team for Lockheed Martin in the past couple of years. First as a developer, and then leading the team. The response of the team as I took over was mixed at first, and then as we solidified our focus and started to see success as a team, we gelled and are now performing at previously unimaginable levels. Lately, I’ve begun training a successor, and am amazed to see how it stretches me as a leader and rewards me at the same time.

As I look to the next decade, I want to be sure to pursue a few things:

1. Keep my priorities straight in the midst of career pressure: faith, family, friends, work, and fun.
2. Be intentional as I invest in others, especially my wife and children. Look for opportunities to add value to their lives in real ways.
3. Continue to grow deep relationships with God and others. Without connecting, can we really grow?
4. Eliminate habits that are counter-productive.

Here’s to making the most of the next ten years!

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