When we’re young we look forward to birthdays. They are filled with parties, sleep overs, gifts and friends. The older we get, the more they change. Today is my 35th birthday. The last several weeks have been filled with opportunities to think about where I’ve been, where I am and where I go from here.

If you could travel through time, like flux capacitor, 1.21 gigawatts type time travel, and have a conversation with a younger you, what would you say?

If I could travel back in time and talk to 25 year old me, there is so much I’d say. I guess I start out by asking him what his dreams are. What do you really want to get out of this life. I think I can remember what those were but they are definitely more blurry today than they were then. I think he’d say that he wants to be more in love with his wife and kids every year as the family grows and becomes more like Jesus. I think he’d say that he wants be a part of a church that really gets the Gospel. I think he’d say that he wants to personally reach people far from God and help them see the face of Jesus. He’d say he wants to become a great husband, father and leader.

I would tell 25 year old me to get off the computer and get his priorities straight. I’d tell him how much his new family needs him to lead, to be the man that God made him to be. I’d share with him the importance of honesty, integrity and grace, both giving and receiving it. I’d share with him how much he’s going to need strong Christ-like men in his life and that he needs to start cultivating those relationships now.

Most importantly, I would share with him that when things get tough, and they will, he needs to lean into his family not withdrawal from it. When the valleys in family life come, ask for help don’t try to fix it alone. 25 year old Jason needs to know that the only way to navigate these waters in life is by growing in Christ.

I would hope that after hearing all this that 25 year old me would be convicted and then excited about what the future holds. Maybe, just maybe, 25 year old me would look back at himself 10 years later and say something like, “Keep living, keep dreaming, keep loving and keep growing in Christ. It’s not too late to make the dreams that God has placed in us reality.”