This week I turned 24. It’s not necessarily a milestone by any standard in our culture, but the birthday make me turn and reflect on my getting older none the less. For 1 year and 4 months now, I’ve been living almost 3 hours from where I grew up and where my family lives and one day before I turned 24 I actually signed an apartment lease for the first time on my own. I’m in full-swing “grown-up” life. It is clear there are ups and downs to adult life – like many people have said, we can reminisce about the “good ol days”, but I don’t find myself doing that. However, I do greatly miss the proximity to my parents and relatives, and it’s not exactly fun to balance checkbooks and pay bills and do all the duties of adult hood. But, I wouldn’t trade any of it, I’ve been able to meet some fantastic people and I am extremely more prepared for all that life might throw at me in the future from my living on my own. This age may be hard to describe, or easy but I could take a boat load of words to do it. So for reflecting on my twenty-fourth year, I want to share with you the wisdom of Jon Foreman from Switchfoot. He wrote the song below on the eve of his twenty-fourth birthday and I completely resonate with it.
Read it, let is soak in, and remember what it was like (or dream of how it will be) at age 24.
(I emboldened some lyrics that really ring true at this time for me)
Twenty-Four
by Switchfoot
Twenty-four oceans
Twenty-four skies
Twenty-four failures
And twenty-four tries
Twenty-four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
With twenty-four drop outs
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I’m singing ‘Spirit,
take me up in arms with You’
And I’m not who I thought I was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I’m singing ‘Spirit,
take me up in arms with You’
There’s twenty-four reasons
To admit that I’m wrong
With all my excuses
Still twenty-four strong
See, I’m not copping out
Not copping out
Not copping out
When you’re raising the dead in me
Oh, oh
I am the second man
Oh, oh
I am the second man now
Oh, I am the second man now
And you’re raising these…
Twenty-four voices
With twenty-four hearts
All of my symphonies
In twenty-four parts
But I want to be one today
Centered and true
I’m singing ‘Spirit take me up in arms with You’
You’re raising the dead in me
Oh, oh
I am the second man
Oh, oh
I am the second man now
Oh
I am the second man now
And you’re raising the dead in me
Yeah
I wanna see miracles
To see the world change
Wrestled the angel for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I’m singing ‘Spirit, take me up in arms with You’
And you’re raising the dead in me
Twenty-four oceans
With twenty-four hearts
All of my symphonies
With twenty-four parts
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I’m singing ‘Spirit,
take me up in arms with You’
I’m not copping out
Not copping out
