30 Years Old: What Lies Ahead?

This week I turn 30. I’m not really one for birthdays. Dee and I have been together for 15 years (yes, I know, too young… moving on). The first year of our childhood romance we enthusiastically bought each other presents… and that was the last time. We are both terrible present buyers, poor celebrators in general, and often forget our own birthdays, never mind the other person’s! If I remember rightly, I’ve celebrated my birthday, properly, only once in the past 10 years. We try hard for our kids to have good birthday memories, but I still feel we probably fall short. It’s just not how we tick.

I’m also not really one for the sentimental numbers. Some people I know have had crises at every 5-year mark! In one sense, I don’t feel there’s much to note about changing not one but two digits in my age now.

That being said, I have been doing a bit of thinking about this particular juncture in my life. In a season of still being relatively new to South Asia, still finding our feet as it were, there is much to ponder about the future. We no longer have established ministries, jobs, or plans. And this can feel like a lack of purpose, a floating in the ether. Hitting this milestone leaves me wondering, what’s ahead?

As I turn into a new decade of existence, I realise that I enter into the company of those who themselves were only beginning now. Abraham began at the end; Paul began probably in or around his fifties. This should be an encouragement to anyone. But, unless I’m mistaken, most people in Scripture whose ages are recorded, began their ministry at 30 years of age.

Of course, the prime example is Jesus who himself began to minister when he was “about 30 years old”. David began to reign when he was thirty years old. Early Jewish sources cite 30 as the age of prime strength and of reaching the first level of maturity. All the priests in the tabernacle began to minister at 30 years old, until they were 50.

Now, surely all these people’s lives had significance before they reached 30. Jesus reasoned in the temple at 12 years of age, (and of course, the fact that the Son of God was among us makes his first 29 years inherently important!), David struck down Goliath and founded his band of not-so-merry men. As for the priests, those involved in certain work were allowed to begin at 25 years of age (perhaps graduating into full cultic ministry at 30), and even after 50 years of age, they were still allowed to watch the doors of the tabernacle. (could Psalm 84 be a retirement hymn?). And by God’s grace, I don’t think my life has had zero impact before now. It’s not as if 30 to 50 are the only valuable years of one’s life. And so much of the Scriptures would speak to our need to heed the wisdom even of the youth (like Timothy), and have older men and women nurturing those who are younger in the faith.

And yet, this is the pattern God himself set for tabernacle service. Something about turning 30 signified that these people were ready to minister before the living God. Nadab and Abihu served as an ever-present reminder that this was not a light thing. The priestly rules were intended both to protect the sanctuary from defilement, but also to protect the lives of those who would minister there. It was not open for just anybody to waltz in and minister before the living God. It was for those who were prepared.

As we read in Leviticus 8, we see that the preparation for service was not a small thing. It was one of specifics, one of the costliness of death, one of devotion. It would mirror the Genesis narrative, creating a “new people of God”, presented as ready to tend and keep his sanctuary even as the way had been prepared for Adam and Eve to tend and keep the garden long ago. Their preparation was a serious event. And they had to be 30 years old.

These men were to give the central 20 years of their life, where strength and experience/wisdom intersected, to the task of fulfilling the mandate given to man from the beginning. Tend and keep. Take dominion. Fill the earth with blessing, as you mediate God’s presence from the sanctuary to the surrounding areas. Before that time, preparation. After that time, supporting their younger brothers and doling out wisdom. But in that time, wholehearted priestly duties.

How we view the seasons of our lives matters. It makes them sustainable, it helps us to bear the correct fruit in the correct season, it blesses the body with people at each stage of life. We are a holy priesthood, yes. But we want to take the opportunity to ask, what does that look like for me right now?

For those younger, are you willing to actually spend time learning, maturing, being prepared for service to the thrice holy God? Not too quick to jump into doing, not assuming you know what’s best, but humbly learning.

For those who are older, are you trying to hold on desperately to what has passed, or are you willing to take a post at the doors, a day of duty of which, is better than a thousand elsewhere? Are you willing to use your time and effort to support those who are in the thick of life, with your wisdom and experience?

And for those in the middle, are we willing to really put the hand to the plough? Not lamenting days gone by, nor fearing days ahead. But trusting that the God who knows how to prepare priests, has his hand ready to prepare you for service in the tending and keeping of this world as the gospel breaks through your life in blessing to others.

I don’t know what the next two decades will look like. And I know that we are not Levites, bound to specific dates with clearly defined lines of service. But I do know this. I need to stop and assess my life. What lies ahead to be done? What lies behind to be stood upon? How will I live in this season that God has given me? How will I walk in the footsteps of those who ministered well once they hit 30.

I want it to count. But I want it to count in the right way. May the Maker of Priests lead you and I into the ways that we should walk in the decades in which we find ourselves. And in case you’re wondering about the other stages of life, be sure to check back in 20 years for my retirement post.