This last month I turned 40! It feels like a big milestone in a lot of ways. I remember my parents turning 40 and at the time they seemed so old! But I don’t feel old. In fact I remember my great grandmother telling me in her late eighties that, until she tried to stand up, she felt 18! In my mind I don’t feel any different and yet now people expect me to be properly grown up!

All of a sudden I realised that I’m not really in the young category anymore. Age, I’ve realised, is relative and getting older isn’t something I’ve ever worried about. What it does make you think is about is what you’d still like to achieve? What dreams have I still got shut away in my bottom drawer? A good friend of mine recently completed a triathlon and it got me thinking, firstly, wow, she’s amazing! But also is there anything like that I would like to do before it’s too late!

There are some dreams that take a lot of hard work and others that we have to just wait for. As I think about dreams I can’t help but think about the dreamers in the bible. Someone like Joseph with his technicolour coat. He dreamt about his brothers bowing down to him, but in order to get there he had to be thrown in a pit, made a slave and then put into prison. That all probably seemed like a massive detour! He may even have forgotten that dream as he sat in the dungeon. But ultimately, his faithful commitment to not becoming bitter, meant he saved a nation and eventually saw his brothers bow before him.

What about men like George Muller who dreamed of helping orphans to find a home. He started small, housing some girls in his home with his wife. This grew until he had built a whole complex of orphanages in Ashley Down in Bristol. If you have time to read his story, you’ll be inspired by his passion and his faith.

Or William Wilberforce, who saw the wrong that was being committed to men and women caught up in the slave trade. He dreamt of seeing those people set free, but it took his hard work and dedication to see that happen.

So as I turn 40, and Sean will turn 40 next year, we’ve begun to ask one other, what’s the legacy we want to leave? What are our dreams? Are we willing to put in the hard work to see them come about? Or will we look back with regret at missed opportunities? Whatever age you’re at now, these might be questions to ask yourself. It’s never too early or too late to look for those dreams to come about.