It seems the older you get, the more common it is for people to accompany their birthday salutations with a collection of condolences. Stuff like, “It’s only a number!” or “You look good for your age…!”

It’s all cool, but lurking behind some of that is a cultural phenomenon that isn’t always healthy.

Our society operates according to a premise that says your prospects are defined according to the season of life that you’re currently positioned in. In other words, your dreams and aspirations need to be qualified according to the number of years you’ve been standing upright.

So, if I’m a teenager, I can dream of when I’m 21 and at that point be comfortable in believing that I’m now capable of accomplishing something extraordinary. By that point, I will have graduated college and I’ll be ready to take on the world.

George Washington was 17 when he commissioned to be the surveyor of the area we now know as Virginia…

If I’m 21, I can now grab the bull of life by the horns and start building my empire. But I need to be careful because whatever “empire” I’m building – that will be my field of expertise for the remainder of my professional career.

Benjamin Franklin was a printer for the first part of his early adult life. Though he later racked up an amazing list of accomplishments as an inventor (Lightning Rod, Franklin Stove), creative thinker (invented the Postal Service, Public Library and Volunteer Fire Dept) and statesman (signed all three of our founding documents [Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Constitution]), he would always sign his name, “Benjamin Franklin – Printer.” While he took great pride in his original career path, it never limited him or completely defined him.

If I’m forty, I’m past my prime and my professional aspirations have either been realized or I’m just trying to get through the week so I can crash on the sofa and watch football.

Moses was forty when he found himself fleeing for his life from Pharaoh after having killed an Egyptian in the midst of defending a fellow Hebrew. His prospects seemed nonexistent, but he was actually getting ready to embark on a career that God would use change the course of human history (see Acts 7:23).

If I’m fifty, I need to be basking in the glow of the plaques on my wall and past accomplishments. Dreaming and reaching for more in the way of noble accomplishments is for someone wearing a younger man’s clothes.

Caleb was forty when he was selected to be among those who would spy out the Promised Land. Because he chose to maintain an even and optimistic disposition in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, he was allowed to enjoy the land he had been tasked to report on. But he would have to fight as part of the military campaigns Israel waged against the Canaanites in order to liberate that territory. That means he was on the field and not behind a computer (see Josh 14:6-12). He would be 85 when he appeared before Joshua and was given the land of Hebron.

If I’m doing the math correctly, I’ve got the potential of another 35 years of conquest, triumphs, dreams, ambitions and accomplishments to be pursuing.

Here’s the deal: I’m loving the view from where I’m at right now. I see more behind me than I did when I was 21 and I also see more before me than I did when I was 40.

Jack LaLanne was doing an acrobatic move called an “adagio” when he was fifty. He and Caleb could probably have gotten along real well, if for no other reason than neither of them were given to the idea of pulling back and complaining about what they used to be able to do.

Smell that? That’s the aroma of more than a few decades worth of opportunities. I’ve got some cake to eat, but then I’m out the door to greet a new day with a list of stuff that needs to get done.

Bring it!