60 Years

Today is my 60th birthday. Thanks to Facebook, I have received numerous birthday wishes and I appreciate each one.

I am NOT a believer in numerology but, for fun, I decided to jot down some things for each year of life the Lord has given me. Many of these will change from year to year but, again, this is just for fun. Here we go:

1 - number of sisters I have (she is older!); number of sons I have; number of wives I have (and she is awesome!)

2 - number of brothers I have (they are younger)

3 - jersey number of the greatest baseball player of all time (and my favorite), George Herman ("Babe") Ruth

4 - number of pets presently in my house (I could quickly change this number to 1)

5 - number of years employed by HODA (House of Decorative Accessories)

6 - number of years (almost) as pastor of Silex Baptist Church; number of DAYS I worked for Eckert's Market one summer

7 - number of sermons I preached from Isaiah 9:1-7 in 2009

8 - number of daughters I have; number or years I have had a bad big toe (thanks grandson!)

9 - number of children God has given to us!

10 - number of grandchildren from the Lord (including the one due in September)!

11 - total number of years (almost) employed by McDonnell Douglas

12 - number of sermons I preached from Malachi in 2001; number of pills I presently take each day

13 - age I received my first pair of glasses; # of the highway running through my home town

14 - age when I saw a 3-0 Giants victory over the Braves at Candlestick Park in San Francisco: Braves had one hit and the Giants 3 (solo homers by Mays, McCovey, and Cepeda)

15 - birthday when I received my first Strat-O-Matic Baseball game ("3-5!")

16 - number of New Testament History classes I have taught at Missouri Baptist University

17 - number of years I have been a grandfather (as of this Saturday!); age when I became champion in the New Athens High School Chess Club

18 - total physical descendants of Debbie and me born to date

19 - total physical descendants of Debbie and me born after September of this year

20 - Total years employed by IBM

21 - number of days YOUNGER I am than one of my closest friends ("the Pawhuska Prophet"!); number of Old Testament History classes taught at Missouri Baptist University

22 - Age when I received my B. A. in math, was born again by God's Holy Spirit, and married to my terrific wife (that was quite a year!)

23 - number of sermons I preached from 1 John in 2001

24 - age when I earned my M. S. in Computer Science and began my IBM career. Also, number of letters in the Greek alphabet (love that Greek! Thank you, Dr. Metts!).

25 - total number of sermons preached in my exposition of Galatians in 2000 (in hindsight, not enough!)

26 - number of sermons preached in my exposition of Colossians in 2009. Also, my age when our IBM softball team won the IBM league championship.

27 - day of the month of May on which I was born; also my age when God called me into the ministry

28 - number of years we have lived in our present home (as of July)

29 - a prime number (love those primes!); # of pages in my thesis for an M.S. in Computer Science ("On the Minimization of Incompletely Specified Sequential Machines"; I'm not even sure what that means any more!)

30 - number of years since I graduated from Criswell College and was ordained to the Gospel ministry; number of sermons I preached from Ecclesiastes in 2004 (that was a struggle!)

31 - Day in the month of October on which we celebrate the Protestant Reformation (you rock, Martin!); also the Trinity number ("3" in "1")

32 - number of pieces on the board at the beginning of a chess match; number of months remaining in the worse Presidency of our country's history

33 - Atomic number of Arsenic (reminds me of "Arsenic and Old Lace"); supposed age of Jesus when he died (likely closer to 35); number of years I have struggled studying Biblical Hebrew!

34 - number of years I have had the pleasure of studying Biblical Greek

35 - number of giraffes I can see while sitting at my desk

36 - number of years I have been a father

37 - number of years I have been married to the greatest woman I know (you rock, Debs!)

38 - number of years since I graduated with my first college degree

39 - Stonewall Jackson's age at his death; number of signers of the United States Constitution; number of sermons I preached from 1 Peter in 2005.

40 - approximate number of Big Macs I will consume this year

41 - years since I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon

42 - average number of hours I sleep each week; number of years since I graduated from high school

43 - age when my first grandchild AND my last child were born

44 - age when I broke my arm at second base playing softball; uniform number of my favorite childhood contemporary ball player, Hank Aaron

45 - total years I had with my father (who would have been 99 yesterday)

46 - my age on the Mother's Day when I preached to a Pinckneyville congregation from Obadiah 15-17 a sermon entitled "Judgment!" (Happy Mother's Day to all)

47 - age when Debbie and I had a blast in Germany and Switzerland

48 - number of years since I first saw "Lawrence of Arabia" on the big screen

49 - my age when I became the pastor of Silex Baptist Church; number of years (almost) I had with my mother

50 - my birthday party when Debbie bought me my last bicycle; I rode it once and decided not to do so again for safety reasons. Took it back to the store, got our money back, and bought stuff for her instead. I loved and rode bikes all the time when I was a kid. But that was in a previous life...

51 - number of books (including Bibles) presently setting on my desk (and not my bookshelves) at home

52 - number of cards in a regular card deck (how many games of "15" have I played over the years?)

53 - The Babe's age when he died.

54 - number of home runs hit by the Babe in 1920, shattering his own record of 29 from the year before. He did this in only 142 games.

55 - Debbie's current age; I pray she has another 55 to go!

56 - my age at the first Wild Walker Week held in Myrtle Beach; number of signers to the Declaration of Independence; number of short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Sherlock Holmes.

57 - number of varieties advertised by Henry Heinz though he actually had more than 60 at the time

58 - number of classes I have taught at Missouri Baptist University through the Spring 2010 semester

59 - my age when I began the pastorate at Bethesda Baptist; number of sermons I have preached to date at Bethesda Baptist.

and, finally,

60 - the number of home runs the Babe hit in 1927 (154 games - I still consider it the record since Maris had 162 games and the modern era players used steroids!); the number of years the Lord has graciously given me to date!