Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

I love it when my birthday falls on a Sunday. It seems the perfect opportunity to keep my focus clear and everything appropriately in perspective.

So I set my alarm early for the day. I wanted to be be up at the same time I was born in Folkestone, England all those years ago in 1956.

Coffee with Rebekah, then breakfast together and our devotions – the perfect way to begin any new day.

Just 67:

I understand it’s not a particularly significant birthday, no zeros or anything. But I am 67 and this feels like an appropriate time to take stock of the current decade before it suddenly runs out. My 50’s were seemingly endless, and just about the most productive years of my life. But the 60’s are on the verge of mostly gone and I’ve hardly had the opportunity to plot a trajectory!

The good news is that I don’t feel all that old. In many ways I’m actually younger now than I was a few years ago. I’m not sure how to describe it other than maybe achieving a more peaceful coexistence with my body.

Yes, I think that’s it. I’m not fooling myself any more that I can do certain stuff and at the same time I am very confident in what I know I can. The arthritis and the physical therapy have had a lot to do with that. I have learned so much about my body and how it works – or doesn’t- and I think I’m better equipped to make good decisions.

Grateful:

But the best decision I can make is to be grateful. Grateful for the amazingly almost seven decades I have enjoyed thus far, and grateful for what is possible. Which adds up to grace (what has been) and promise (what can be).

Which brings me back to why I am glad it’s a Sunday. Grace and promise are both words of faith. And living forward from this moment is, always, an act of faith.

I know too many people who reached a certain point and then they either stopped or coasted. Maybe I could invent a phrase: “If you coast you’re toast!” Or how about “If you stop you’ll drop!”?

I’ll settle for Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Grateful – DEREK