The Resume of My 40’s

As I approach my 50th birthday, just one week from today, I am reflecting on the wonderful things that occurred during the decade of my forties. A lot of life happened during this decade. In fact, I would say that I experienced some of the most important events of my life during my time from 39 through 49 years old.

Here are a few things that happened from 39 to 49!

• Left Florida for the first time in my life as Tracee, Hunter and myself moved across country to Texas to be part of a new church.
• Moved back to Florida 2 years later to plant a new church in Winter Springs called Crown Pointe.
• Traveled to more places, both internationally and nationally, than all the places I had ever visited in all of the first 30 years of my life.
• Watched my children graduate from high school and two of the three graduate from college. My youngest is getting closer to his degree every day!
• Walked my daughter Ashlee down the aisle as she was married to Lee Kasten. The memory still warms my heart!
• Experienced the birth of our first granddaughter, Paislee Kasten. There is nothing like having a grandchild!
• Had one of my deepest spiritual experiences of my entire life in Wales when I was 39. Had another one, just as significant in Wales again when I was 41. Nothing compares to an encounter with God!
• I Finally finished college for myself, earning a Bachelor of Theology degree.
• Coached high school football at Winter Springs High School and loved every single minute of it.
• Went to work at Chase Card Services and became one of their top national sales representatives two years in a row. By God’s grace, I literally went from worst to first.
• Took a brand new career path in sales and publishing at Xulon Press, where I eventually became the Sales Manager.
• Competed in my first triathlon! A year later, I would actually place second in my age group.
• Proudly watched as my wife Tracee published her first book, The Adventures of Akeem.
• Started working on my first book, a novel called The Family Tree.
• Finally went to my first Garth Brooks concert in Kansas City (when he came out of retirement just for me!).
• Traced my family history all the way back to England and actually visited the historic church that my 7th great-grandfather founded in 1771.
• Made over 100 new friends that I know by name.
• Laughed almost every day!
• By the Grace of God, I matured more in this decade than any other. I feel like it was my forties that caused me to grow into a man that fully loves God, his family and his friends. I thought I knew how to be a man in my twenties and thirties, but I am now sure that it takes years to make a man and decades to make a man of God.

These are just the main highlights. While I can’t fully describe everything, I can tell you that this decade has been the most significant one so far in my entire life—both in the great things that occurred and the deep testings that we went through, this decade is like a lifetime of its own.

Are you getting ready to turn 40? If you are, don’t dread it, look forward to it! If your journey is like mine, you will experience some of the greatest things that life has to offer during the next decade. A lot of life is getting ready to happen! Make sure you take it all in and that you take a few pictures along the way. You’re going to want to remember it one day! It makes me look forward to next decade of my life. What will I do in my fifties that I have never done before?

Next week I will post my 50th post of this blog on my 50th birthday. I will share what I have learned on this incredible 365-day journey to my 50th birthday!