So tomorrow (December 17) I turn 33 years old. Depending on your age, that may or may not sound old to you, but to put that in perspective, if I was Jesus, I’d be getting crucified this year.

This knowledge has caused me to begin contemplating a few things about my life—which may or may not end soon. I know two things for certain:

Losing weight sucks. It sucks even harder when you’re as old as I am. You have to work twice as hard to lose half as much, and if you take a day off, it immediately all comes back. That’s not fair.

Which leads me to point two. Life’s not fair. Deal with it.

No. In all seriousness, though, I do want to let people know a couple things I wish somebody would’ve told me when I was “young”:

1. God’s not trying to keep anything from you

Prior to me understanding what Jesus accomplished on the cross, I thought religion was oppressive and God was a prude.

Yet when you’re introduced to Jesus, you quickly realize he was just as opposed to traditional religion as I was, and that God’s goal is for you to have life to the full! (See John 10:10)

The reason there are boundaries in life, is for our own protection.

2. You don’t have to have all your questions answered to believe

Here’s how I’ve heard it said, “You don’t have to understand completely, to obey immediately.”

Psalm 119 records that David “chose the way of faithfulness.” If you study the Psalms closely, you’ll see David repeatedly ask, “God where are you? What are you doing?” In fact, many of the “Fathers of the Faith”, guys like Jeremiah, Paul, and Peter, frequently question God and doubt that He’s moving on their behalf.

I guess let me tie these two thoughts together with a scripture. 1 John 5:3 states, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

My prayer for you is that God’s disciplines become a delight in your life!

Merry Christmas everybody!