On Being an Adult...

Hello, friends! 

I'm sitting here right now blogging in Beautiful Columbia, Missouri with a simple question to answer.  Do I play some video games or do I paint a table?  Yesterday, the choice was whether or not I should watch college football or clean the basement.  I ended up cleaning the basement and soon I will be painting the table.  I just spent the past 30 minutes doing a home energy audit to see if how to best cut back on costs.  This includes looking into getting some information on possibly going solar.  Added to that, I've been going back and forth the past few months on whether or not we should switch to pre-paid cell phones instead of the post-paid arrangement we have now. 

What have I learned from all this?  Being a grown-up is hard work! 

Let's be real y'all... I'm not the young man I used to be in a lot of ways.  I'm closer to 30 than I am to 20 (or 25 for that matter).  I'm now a (happily) married man instead of a single guy.  This is year 7 with InterVarsity and I am on the "veteran staff" side of the team now instead of the "new staff" side.  My number once concern used to be whether or not the Cardinals won last night.  It's still top-5, but not an obvious #1 anymore.  =0). 

Here's the thing.  I love being an adult.  I really do!  I love being married and having grand conversations about having kids and things like that (No kids anytime soon, btw).  I love owning a home and thinking about ways to make it run more efficiently.  I love taking on more responsibility in my job and seeing a new crop of student leaders and staff answer the call.  I don't love not being able to run a sub-6 minute mile anymore but even that's necessarily set in stone!  Being an adult is awesome! 

The one thing that has remained a constant throughout my maturation has been that I have loved seeing how God has given me new opportunities to love and serve the kingdom.  When I was younger, it was through my studies (oops), my attempts at relationships (double oops), and student leadership (meh!).  Now it is through my job, serving my wife, and staff leadership.  Financial stewardship is a big deal.  Making sure that I'm serving and loving Meg is a HUGE deal.  Setting a good example for students and empowering them so they can share Christ's love with the Asian and Asian Americans on Mizzou's campus is a crucial deal. 

Pretty much, it comes down to this.  Being older or being younger doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.  Freshmen have just as many opportunities to do good work for the kingdom as Seniors (and staff!).  The opportunities may look different but they are most certainly there.  As I've seen it happen in my own life I have hope that I'll be able to see it happen in the lives of students. 

Have an excellent day! 

~Adam