As Another Decade Comes to An End

I guess anyone who writes a daily blog about whatever comes to their mind has to have a certain amount of self-indulgence. For one who has been doing it for over 5 years and nearly 2,400 posts, and who for 30 years stood in a pulpit and told people what his interpretations of God's word were has to have more than the average self-indulgence (not to mention hubris and a bunch of other things.)

Well, as you are no doubt getting tired of hearing, I am now one week away from my 60th birthday. As a self-indulgent baby boomer I am taking the time to use this as a way of personal reflection. All of us are, for better or worse, the sum of all the events and years and experiences, the hopes and dreams and disasters of our lives. Then add to those the basic personality we seem to have been born with and the genetic material handed down across the generations. Finally mix all them in the stew pot of whatever culture and ethnic group, socio-economic class and favorite music- and you have you.

So, for those of you who might be interested I am going to review these 6 decades that are me. I don't think my life is any more interesting than yours or anyone else's. In many ways it is probably just old average. The ups and downs can be described in many different ways for each of us. The same ups and downs could turn into one person's road to pain and anger, while someone else uses it for good and hope.

Over the next six days, the last six days of my 6th decade I am going to review each of the decades. They will not be in depth, but rather in summary and a quick overview. I may try to pick out the more important or more interesting things from my perspective. I may try to analyze or reflect on then- and I may not. I don't know how it will go until it's over. At the end I may find nothing new- or I may be amazed at what I've missed.

In the end I have a hunch that it will be a kind of review of how I discovered God's will in my life. I may have told this before but our district president when I was in seminary was asked once to describe how he knew God's will. He simply said that he would walk through an open door and walk through it. When he looked back he would notice that it was God's will.

In AA I have heard it said that you discover God's will in two ways.

• One is just to do the next right thing.
• The other is when you hit a dead-end or a wall, turn and keep on going.

So I'll review some of those walls, dead-ends and open doors I've hit and walked through our around. From the view of a somewhat wiser, and definitely older guy maybe there will be visions of God's will in this pilgrimage into the post-modern world that I hope will open some doors for you.

Or not, since it is my story- and self-indulgence at work. At least I hope you get some enjoyment and insight.