This past weekend I had my 30th birthday. It is a day not many who knew me growing up expected to come. I should not have seen my first birthday. I had all sorts of physical and mental challenges as I grew up. I could not play sports, let alone understand them until I was about 12 years old. Most kids know exactly why you run up and down a soccer field before they are five. I didn't until I was 12. I had no reading comprehension until I was 12 either. I could tell you what was on a page but I could not tell you what it meant. My brain is really good at memorizing what to do for a particular situation but has difficulty applying what I know to a different situation. This is why I did not drive until a year and a half ago. I had no problem operating a vehicle. I had problems knowing how to operate my vehicle in conjunction with other people operating their vehicles (and I have seen while on the road that this problem is not mine alone). The list goes on and on and I could write a full length novel about this.
But in all that I have been through, God has come through in style. Today, I am not the best as sports but I am generally at least decent at almost all of them. I started fencing 15 years ago and since them my athletic skills have dramatically improved. I never did read as much as people tended to give me credit for but in the last few years, I have written and published a fiction novel, something that someone in my situation growing up would never have on his radar. I have more books coming. As I have reflected over my life, I had a really slow start. But that does not automatically mean I am "behind". I often play video games and one of the games I would play is called F-Zero, a racing game for various Nintendo Consoles. Interestingly enough, my favorite cars to play were the ones with the slower accelerator (it took them a while to pick up speed) but the greater maximum speed (once it got to it's max speed, nothing could keep pace). My life has felt like this. I started out very slow, but once God started moving in my life, I have picked up more and more speed. At age 30, I am not sure if I have "caught up" with where I should be had I grown up "normally" or not, but I do know I am either nearly there or already surpassed it. What I do know for certain is that God made me exactly who I need to be to accomplish what he wants done.
What do I have coming? I am certified to be a teacher and I am waiting and searching for a job opening. I will continue my new found hobby of writing. I do not intend it to be my breadmaker, but you never know. I have a non-fiction book in the planning stages. In one of my posts from last year, I talked about how the Doctrines of Christianity trace back to the book of Genesis. With some feedback and some big names expressing a strong interest in this project, I am going to be getting started on it soon. That will be a multi-year project and from what I have heard from various people is that no one has attempted to do what I am going to be doing with this. So I have a potential really big hit with this project. I still plan to continue fencing, though due to finances until I get a full-time job, I have been forced to hold back on competition. That being said, I am still searching for opportunities to use my sport as a ministry tool. I will have my next opportunity coming up at the end of July with my church when we wrap up a 9-week Summer Wednesday night service, emphasizing on evangelism. I also have an invitation to speak about my fencing ministry and my books on an internet radio show in July as well. The network apparently has approximately 100K listeners. All I know is that God has big stuff planned for me and I am thoroughly enjoying this ride every step of the way. I have been through some tough trials and tribulations leading up to this and I know I have plenty more to come. But God is a big God and as long as I stay in the center of his will, nothing will bring me down. It's going to be a wild, fun, and intense journey to come.
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