Year 35 Looms Large

Those of you familiar with my regular birthday ritual will no doubt be expecting a post regarding my Year 35 Theme. But before we get into that, let's review this past year.

Some highlights/accomplishments:

• I competed in my 2nd marathon and my 2nd and 3rd mini-marathons (and these on consecutive days!)
• I took my first business trip to Southeast Asia, staying in the Philippines for a week and getting to see the sites and experience the local culture.
• I finished/re-read several books (following up on my Year 32 Theme): Abba's Child, Spiritual Authority, The Making of a Leader, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, In Cold Blood, Living a Life on Loan, and a few others...
• At work I've been able to implement some of the tools I've been receiving in SystemVerilog training and am beginning to develop proficiency and to see some payoff in the investment.

But this year has also brought some challenges that I'd not anticipated...periods of intense anxiety and immense loneliness and isolation. I spent considerable time this summer examining my life story, recognizing how my life has evolved through various leadership development phases, and honestly evaluating my character and growth needs. Several things became quite evident:

• I have no clearly-articulated life and/or ministry philosophy; my approach has been sharpened and shaped by life's circumstances, and I operate daily on the convictions I've developed, but I've not taken the time to state it explicitly such that I could communicate it to someone else when asked.
• I've viewed much of life as a course down a single path, an inflexible vision that--should it not come to pass--leaves me in the posture of considering my life a failure. This doesn't give Jesus much flexibility to direct me where He wants me to be.
• I've spent much of my adult life out of touch with my emotions, choosing to live factually and empirically. This is great for making decisions, but lousy for having authentic relationships.
  

So to that end I've reached a decision on my theme for Year 35:

To develop and maintain and written Life Philosophy--a working document that describes the significant events and seasons of my life, captures the lessons learned, and distills them to a list of principles by which I can make decisions that are in line with where my life has been and is going.  I agree with Dr. Clinton that any Life Philosophy that I could embrace must:  honor Biblical leadership values, be practical in engaging the challenges of today, and fit my unique gifts and development.

If the saying "the past is prologue" is true, then the best way to see where you're going is to know where you've been.  If I want to see where Jesus could use me in the future, it would help to--at any point in life--be able to recognize how he's used me in the past.

In some ways, this theme is the logical next step from the themes of Years 33 and 34--"Learning to manage unending projects" and "Becoming a person who faces each day head-on"; The hope is that by taking a pro-active stance in planning and entering the next phase of life head-on--armed with the lessons learned to date--I can best manage and optimize the eternal experience that is Life.