Skip to main content

So, I turned 60 today

It's an ironic feeling that I am going through today. It's my 60th birthday and I don't feel any different at all from the day before when I was still in the 50's decade.
My brother is turning 60 today also. He's a great brother, and a good friend, even though he whines too much. That's him...he's not too bad looking for a 60 yr. old.
And so is Tom Watson, of Professional golf fame. We all came into this world on Sept 4, 1949...so did a lot of other people I'm sure.
My siblings are mainly older, so they are enjoying my coming into their decade. I have three older sisters, and one younger...and oh yeah, a brother who has gone on to be with the Lord along with my mom and dad. I was born in 1949...Harry Truman was president...bet you don't know his vice-president...shoot, most people don't even know who the current one is. [By the way, in 1949, Alben Barkley was the VP]. In 1949, Sara Lee introduce her cheesecake, and "silly putty" arrived, along with 45 rpm vinyl records. "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" made it's way into print, and so did "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller. In 1949, besides my brother and Tom Watson, Billy Joel, Merly Streep, Bruce Springsteen, and Whoopi Goldberg shared the year with us. I think it was a pretty good year for creating entertainers. But 49 didn't last but a year and we were in the 50's. I started school in 1955...no kindergarten, just first grade. Mrs. Peter's was my 1st and 2nd grade teacher...she was also my next door neighbor for a while.
I've lived through the bomb shelter era, the Russia-Cuba crisis, JFK's assassination, along with his brother Bobby and Martin Luther King. I made it through Richard Nixon and LBJ...both of whom I'm convinced were crooked. I shook Nixon's hand in an airport in Oshkosh in 1968 when he was running for President. Didn't tell my father who was a die-hard Democrat, but it did get him my vote that year, something I soon would regret. I made it through Seminary, which unless you've done it, you have no idea of what that really means. I love God, have since I was 19 and he found me in college. I survived the Vietnam era, and then the 70's...wow, anyone who made it through the 70's probably can't remember a lot of things about it...it was the blah era. I grew up in the 60's era a Packer fan, and have been hooked since. I became a Badgers fan in the early 80's and have been hooked since. I still remember the "Miracle on Ice", which is the most memorable sporting event in all of U.S. sports history - from my point of view.
I married the gal who help me find God, and we've managed to hang in there for 38 years...with four kids that I couldn't be more proud of. Thanks Linda, Kelly, Chris, Lindsay and Andy for loving me...I'm blessed.
It's crazy to think of it...I'm sixty! But it could be worse. My motto from this point onward: "Senior Citizen, give me my bloody discount!"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday, Day 25: Christmas Eve - God Loves Us (So We Can Relax)

For Kids: There’s a lot of things we have to do each day. Get up from our sleep, Get dressed, Eat Breakfast, Get ready for School, Listen to the teacher, play with friends, eat our lunch, and after it’s all done, go back home. There’s time to play, Then we eat our supper… And eventually we have to get ready for bed and go to sleep! And then we do it all over again the next day. Sometimes there’s a vacation - like right now - and we get more time to play, to have fun and not have to do work at school. Our parents are good at helping us know what time it is and what we need to do next – even when we don’t want to move on to the next thing.  God is also good at helping us know what time it is, and what is next.  He doesn’t shout at us, or yell, or even scream…he does it peacefully, quietly.  He wants us to understand that he does it, most of all, for us. Christmas can be quite busy and there’s lots of things going on at once…but l...

Joy to the World - Help is On the Way

It’s the first day of Advent– while you prepare for Worship this morning at church take a minute to ask God to direct you through this season that you might be prepared to “receive your King”. In the first week of Advent we celebrate the PROMISE of His Coming. His promise is based on our need. We were made in his image, but there is emptiness in our soul that is the result of the Fallen nature of sin. But why did Jesus come? What in his coming announces God's heart? His desire for us to know and experience? 10 BUT THE ANGEL SAID TO THEM, "DO NOT BE AFRAID; FOR BEHOLD, I BRING YOU GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY WHICH WILL BE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE; 11 FOR TODAY IN THE CITY OF DAVID THERE HAS BEEN BORN FOR YOU A SAVIOR, WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD. GREAT JOY! Did you know that God is Joyful? 1 CHRONICLES 16:23-27 (NASB) 23 SING TO THE LORD, ALL THE EARTH; PROCLAIM GOOD TIDINGS OF HIS SALVATION FROM DAY TO DAY. 24 TELL OF HIS GLORY AMONG THE NATIONS, HIS WONDERFUL DEEDS AMONG ALL THE PEOPLES....

The Gospel of Matthew - Coming: An Exposition and Devotional on the Life of Jesus

Preface  I just finished writing a daily devotional of the book of Matthew with an emphasis on expositing the text and bringing some daily devotional thoughts to the text.  It will be a 40-day journey reading the book of Matthew and the things I wrote within it. Why do it?  Well, first of all, I have loved reading the Scripture for over 50 years now.  I taught the Scriptures on multiple levels from Sunday messages in a Church, to Bible Studies, to Young Adults' discipleship formation, to lectures in a college setting.  I love the Scriptures because it is the Word of God delivered to us from God through human authors, and as Paul reminded Timothy, “it is profitable”. Matthew was a disciple of Jesus, also called Levi, he was not like most of the other disciples. Many of the disciples were middle-class, some commoners, and several were fishermen by trade (which made them middle-class commoners).  We don't know what all of them did, but we do know what Matthew ...