So This Is 30

30 is… weird.

I assume, anyway. I’m not quite there yet. I’m quickly approaching. T-minus… a few days as of the time of this writing.

I’m not freaking out or anything. I’m not in a crisis. I won’t say that it’s my second 29th birthday or other cliche things like that. But it’s still weird. Like, I won’t be a 20-something anymore. That’s weird. I’ll no longer be a kid. Now, I suspect I’ll get equal amounts of comments from people saying, “you’re still a kid to me, just wait until you’re _____ years old,” and people saying, “That’s the problem with your generation, you think you’re kids through your twenties! Back when I was your age…” and at least a few people will debate long and hard about which comment they’ll want to leave because they somehow relate to both.

I digress.

Whatever your position, when you hit this kind of milestone age, it’s easy to want to take a moment to reflect on life. It’s almost compulsory to ask if you’re where you thought you’d be. If you’re on the right track or if you’ve missed the boat.

But I’m not worried about 30. You know, I’m in pretty good company.

The Multicolor Cardigan

You know Joseph. The one with the colorful coat. His brothers got all jelly and threw him in a pit, but found their conscience and sold him to some gypsies instead. He went to Egypt, did some stuff, got framed by an important guy’s wife, went to jail for awhile, you know, the usual coming-of-age stuff.

Talk about a patient dude though. Remember where he started? What drove his brothers crazy? He dreamed that they would bow before him. Now, a decade or so later, he’s in jail, wondering what the heck the dream was about.

After a few years interpreting the dreams of some other guys, he works his way out of jail and up the ranks until eventually becoming the number 2 guy in Egypt. Like, all of Egypt. Answers only to Pharaoh. Pha-woah.

How old was he when he achieved this favored position?

30 years.

The Shepherd

Now you’ve probably heard of this little shepherd boy: the son of Jesse who is promised greatness as a teenager and indeed slays a giant as a young man. He patiently waits for years in the service of the king, even betrayed and hunted by him, before eventually seeing God’s promise realized.

David became king of Israel at 30.

The Lunatic

Fast forward about a thousand years and we meet a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit from inside his mother’s womb. So potent was the Holy Spirit’s power in this unborn child that he leaped in the womb upon being near the as-yet-unborn Jesus.

He spent his time in the wilderness until the Lord freed him up to do his ministry. He came to the people saying uplifting things like, “you brood of vipers!” and telling them they’d burn. Presumably with a mouthful of crickets.

How old was he when God called him to officially begin his ministry?

You guessed it: 30.

The Messiah

If there’s any one example to really latch onto from this list, it’s Jesus. The Bible literally tells us that’s part of why He came, to be the example of perfection that we’d never had.

Jesus lived an incredible life, though short. Luke gives us the best account of Jesus’ childhood, though brief. The last we hear of Jesus as a child is when He’s hanging out with scholars and rabbis at the temple when he was 12 and He blew everyone’s mind. Then we get this powerful verse: “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)

The next time we see Him, He is baptized and the Holy Spirit descends as a dove.

The Bible tells us that’s when His ministry starts.

He was 30.

The Bald Blogger

So here I am. I’ve actually been excited about 30 for years. I’m pumped to see what God has in store for me. I have no idea what it is, but I know it’s going to be awesome.

It seems like there’s always a lot of pressure to have all the answers at a really young age. We often use passages like where Paul encourages Timothy despite his youth and say, “Be more like Timothy!” But we can deduce from Scripture that Timothy was probably in his late 20s when Paul wrote this letter. So if you’re young but feeling the pressure to get your life in order because you’re past your prime: don’t.

Jesus wowed people when He was 12, but even He took the next 18 years to “increase in wisdom” before plunging into His ministry.

Now, will I be king of a nation or a prophet in the wilderness? I mean, I’m not going to doubt what God can do, but I think it’s safe to say probably not.

But I do know this: I’m just getting started.