As a father of 4 youngsters, birthdays are a BIG deal in my house. We barely get past one birthday before one of my children (sometimes the same child) is talking about what they want for their next. Given that their birthdays are almost equally spread out by quarter, it’s an ongoing conversation.
For me, this year marks a milestone birthday. A milestone that I haven’t been completely comfortable with — I turn 40 this year. Now it’s fun to say that 40 is the new 20, but I don’t feel 20 and I don’t really want to go back. For those who are younger, 40 is really old. For those who are older, you’ll scoff and say, “Just wait until you are 50 (or 60).” I remember turning 30 ten years ago and I didn’t like it much. It meant that I wasn’t a kid anymore, I wasn’t a 20 something — I had to grow up, be responsible, figure out how to be a role model for my baby boy (only one at the time) and lead a family.
But 40 is different. It feels significant and important — it’s even Biblical. As it turns out, 40 is about half of our current life expectancy (averaging male & female). There are multiple significant references to 40 days and 40 years in Judaism and Christianity:
· Rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights during the Great Flood (Gen. 7:4)
· The Hebrew people lived in the lands outside of the promised land for “forty years”. This period of years represents the time it takes for a new generation to arise. (Numbers 32:13)
· Several Jewish leaders and kings are said to have ruled for “forty years”; that is, a generation. Examples include Eli (1 Samuel 4:18), Saul (Acts 13:21), David (2 Samuel 5:4), and Solomon (1 Kings 11:42).
· Goliath challenged the Israelites twice a day for forty days before David defeated him. (1 Samuel 17:16)
· Moses spent three consecutive periods of “forty days and forty nights” on Mount Sinai:
a. He went up on the seventh day of Sivan, after God gave the Torah to the Jewish people, in order to learn the Torah from God, and came down on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, when he saw the Jews worshiping the Golden Calf and broke the tablets. (Deuteronomy 9:11)
b. He went up on the eighteenth day of Tammuz to beg forgiveness for the people’s sin and came down without God’s atonement on the twenty-ninth day of Av. (Deuteronomy 9:25)
c. He went up on the first day of Elul and came down on the tenth day of Tishrei, the first Yom Kippur, with God’s atonement. (Deuteronomy 10:10)
· Prophet Elijah had to walk 40 days and 40 nights before arriving to Mount Horeb (1King 19: 8)
· Before his temptation, Jesus fasted “forty days and forty nights” in the Judean desert. (Matthew 4:2, Mark 1:13, Luke 4:2)
· Forty days was the period from the resurrection of Jesus to the ascension of Jesus. (Acts 1:3)
· Lent runs during the 40 days preceding Easter.
I’ve seen 40 coming for a couple of years and I’ve actually been thinking critically about it — I’ve used it as a driver to accomplish a few goals:
· Almost 3 years ago I decided to take the leap of faith and launch a new business. From the time I was a kid, I knew that I wanted to start and lead a company. As I got closer to 40 there was a certain sense of urgency that came across me and I felt I was going to fail by simply not trying. I fulfilled the dream in the Spring of 2015 with the launch of MI7 and have been living the startup life now for almost three years. While age itself has little to do with it, it has been a great motivator and push for me.
· It was two years ago that I found myself on a scale with 50lbs of excess baggage — if Southwest charged baggage fees I would have had to pay extra just to get on the plane. At that point, I made a commitment to get in shape, lose weight and be the healthiest me I could be before I turned 40. To date, I have lost the weight and continue to engage in a healthy lifestyle of working out 3–5 times a week and am acutely focused on my diet and physical health.
· And then last year, just one year from turning 40, I committed to train for and run a marathon. You can gather from the last point — running a marathon at 230lbs was not really going to work out for me. After dropping down to about 175 and getting into great physical shape, driving toward this goal was a bit easier and having it on the horizon was something to chase. Earlier this year, after 6 months of training, I successfully accomplished my goal and ran 26.2 miles in the Austin Marathon.
Now, today, I find myself exactly 40 days from turning 40 years old. When asked what I wanted for my birthday, I really couldn’t think of anything. But as I thought about it more critically — there is one more thing that I would like to do before my birthday — something special for someone else. However, I cannot accomplish this by myself.
Since moving back to Austin in 2014, we have made a conscious effort to engage in our community and find ways and areas where we can contribute. One such activity has been to help feed and house Austin’s homeless via an incredible Austin-based non-profit organization called Mobile Loaves and Fishes. If you’ve followed me in the past few years, you have probably seen me post about MLF on one social media outlet or another. The work that the organization is doing in the Austin community is awe-inspiring. Of particular interest is the years-long effort to build the Community First! Village and to watch how it has given hope to Austin’s homeless. Here are just a few write-ups on what’s going on:
· http://www.eastsideatx.com/community-first-village/
· https://austin.curbed.com/2016/5/17/11686368/tiny-houses-austin-end-homelessness
Last week, I reached out to Alan Graham, founder of Mobile Loaves and Fishes and 2015 Austinite of the Year, to talk to him about my “birthday wish” and asked him what the greatest needs were for the community. I told him, in sticking with the 40s theme, I wanted to help raise $40,000 for the community and asked him if that would fund a home for someone. It turns out that it will not only fund a RV home but it will also furnish and outfit 4 more!
To help celebrate my 40th Birthday, I would like to ask for your help in raising $40,000 to provide a home for someone less fortunate. I know that $40,000 is a lot of money and unfortunately our finances do not allow us to make that kind of contribution independently. However, if I can find 1000 friends, colleagues & family members to commit just $1/day for the next 40 days leading up to my birthday — we can make it happen. It just so happens that today, across Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter, I am connected to 5,411 of you. Even if there is a 10% overlap, I really only need 20% of my social network to make this birthday wish come true.
The folks at MLF have created a special page where you can contribute toward this goal. Please take a second to watch the video above to see exactly what this means for our community and then consider wishing me a Happy Birthday for the next 40 days by making a contribution as I count down to 40 on December 2nd!
