FredMcKinnon.Com

Yesterday (November 6) I celebrated my 40th birthday.  The sadness of being away from my family was tempered by celebrating with 28 great people from our church.  We’d taken a trip to the Seminars4Worship event in Augusta, GA and between the constant birthday greetings from our church group, a non-stop stream of text messages and Facebook alerts, birthday cake (coordinated by my wife from 4 hours away) and the entire S4W concert stopping to sing “Happy Birthday” to me, it was pretty awesome.

This is a big birthday – there is something about “40″ that just feels weird to me.  I’m definitely not a kid anymore.  Are you still a “young adult” at 40?  I’m not sure.

As I woke up yesterday morning in the hotel I just thanked God for my life and asked Him, “So God, what does this decade have in store for me”?.  As if it were a joke, the first thought that came back to me (in that still, small voice that I interpret to be the voice of my Lord) was Him replying “well, Fred, in this decade, you will have FOUR TEENAGERS”.

HAHAHA.  God has such a sense of humor.

Seriously, as I ponder passing into the 40′s, I have noticed something.  More and more, my vision and ideas are about how I help mentor, encourage, and equip OTHERS to fulfill their dreams.  I seem to be thinking less about my own.

Do I still have dreams?  Absolutely.  Some of those that have been buried for years just may come back up.  I wonder if this would be one of the least productive decades of my life (did I mention that by the end of it I’ll have four teenagers) … but my focus turns to what it means to be a father, and how pouring into these children can be (and should be) the MOST productive decade of my life.

So, here’s to a new decade.