30 Brave Things

I’m officially 30 years old now.  It’s one of those big milestone birthdays but rather than being freaked out that I’m getting old I’m actually really excited for this next year.  It promises to be filled with wonderful, challenging, and new experiences.  And on top of that I’m really grateful for the experience, wisdom, and growth I have gained in my first 30 years of life.  While there are times I wish I could go back to a simpler time in life, in reality I wouldn’t if it meant losing the knowledge, perspective, and maturity I have now.

For 2016 in lieu of making New Year’s resolutions I chose the word “brave” to focus on for the year with the intention of bringing bravery in to areas of my life in which I want and need to do hard and challenging things (see my post from earlier this year: A Year of Being Brave).

As I reflected on the year so far and my milestone birthday I wanted a way to mark this year.  Rather than just celebrating one day I wanted a way to challenge myself to continue to grow, to embrace this new decade, and to ensure I carry out the adventures I have planned.  And the idea that resulted was doing 30 brave things this year to honor my 30 years of life so far.

My list isn’t complete yet.  As I have found so far this year doing one brave thing often results in needing to do another brave thing.  Either it goes well and then I have a chance to take things a step further or doing the brave thing doesn’t go well and I need to continue be brave to repair or adjust to what happened when I did the brave thing.

In no particular order here’s the start of my list of 30 brave things to celebrate 30 years of life:

1. Don't get caught up in worry or excitement for the future-stay put and grounded in the present
2. Do two days of silent retreats at some point this year
3. Engage in prayer, reflection, and evaluating seminaries to decide which one I will attend
4. Apply to seminaries
5. Start seminary!
6. Take the first steps of becoming an ordained pastor within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
7. Ride my bike across the United States
8. Go on some dates with some guys
9. Move away from home
10. Travel someplace new (Costa Rica?)
11. Set and accomplish some fitness goals
12. Let more people be a part of my journey
13. Write more often and share my writing with others 
14. Live more deeply into this truth: I am a deeply loved by God. 

Being brave is at the same time messy and beautiful and necessary.  I can’t wait to see the beautiful mess of this next year!