So now do I get to...

flip out. I just turned 40 so I was wondering if I am now officially excused for irrational or self-destructive behavior. I could go bungee jumping, skydiving, purchase a motorcycle, enter the tough man competition, put it all on black or red and let it ride, start racing a car at the local dirt track, go over niagara falls in a wooden barrel, swim the English channel, take up surfing, run a marathon, walk the length of the great wall of China, hike the Appalachian Trail, go hang gliding, work towards my pilot's license, try to set a new land, air or water speed record, try out for a semi-pro football team or buy a thousand dollars worth of penny stocks on credit and hope to be a millionaire by the end of the week.

I think it is ironic but not coincidental that many mid-life crisis flip outs are, in the end, based in selfishness. Who was I going to write the great American novel for or purchase that red mustang convertible for? Whose life will be enriched if I were to do all the things listed above?

I believe the message of Christ is about enriching the lives of others while sacrificing the enrichment of our own lives as we wait for God to enrich our lives on a far grander scale than we could ever aspire to with our human desires and ambitions. It is so hard to lay down my agenda for my life and take up God's agenda. I want them to run together, but I know they rarely will until I mature enough spiritually through Christ to change my agenda into God's agenda.