Hitting 40

I celebrated my birthday over the weekend, and it was a major one--The Big 4-0. So far, I haven't experienced too much angst over hitting this milestone, although I've had a few fleeting moments of wondering just how I got here. After all, I thought for sure that by now I'd be married with a couple of kids. Nearly everyone else in my family--not to mention nearly all of my co-workers and almost everyone at church--has a family of their own, so I naturally thought I'd follow suit. Navigating life as  a singleton has been challenging, particularly when it seems like everyone else around you is paired off, and when you are in a place in life that you did not choose or necessarily want to be in at this point.

Still, as my sister astutely pointed out, most likely everyone could say that their life has not turned out like they had planned it. I am sure there are plenty of married parents who envy my single life and the freedoms that it brings. The grass is always greener and all that, I have to remind myself from time to time.

Besides occasionally struggling with contentment (or lack thereof) with where I am in life, I also sometimes struggle with finding a purpose in life. There are times when I see people around me experiencing what I consider to be really extraordinary lives, and my life in comparison seems dull, dull, dull. But over the weekend this little bit of wisdom occurred to me, and I thought I'd share it with you:

I don't have to be extraordinary or do anything extraordinary to have a purpose. I was fearfully and wonderfully made by an extraordinary God, and I am therefore already extraordinary. My purpose is to glorify the One who created me. That is what I was made for. 

I want to keep this in mind, particularly when I'm feeling that envy toward someone else seemingly living a far more interesting life than mine. Perhaps the 40s will be a decade of truly becoming content with my life and not worrying so much about the future. Maybe God has some really grand adventures planned that are far beyond what I would have chosen for myself. Time will tell...