Today I turn 34 years old. To me, the number 34 brings a couple of significant associations to my mind -- but it seems to me that they all have something to do with accomplishment, heroism, and mortality.

One of my earliest and strongest identifications with the #34 is Walter Payton, the great running back for Chicago Bears. When I was growing up, every football player wanted to wear #34 -- because of Walter Payton -- and I was certainly no different. I still treasure the memory of seeing #34 at the Bears' training camp in Platteville, Wisconsin, back in the mid-1980s. I still treasure the memory of seeing #34 dance the Superbowl Shuffle when the Bears won it all in 1985. Walter Payton was one of the classic sports icons for my generation, and that #34 is intrinsically linked to everything he represented. And yet, I'm shocked to look up Payton's bio and realize that he retired from football at the age of 33. Before he ever saw his 34th birthday, as I'm seeing it now. By the time Walter Payton was my age, he was done. Superbowl championship, multiple Pro Bowl selections, a Hall of Fame career: done before #34 ever celebrated his 34th birthday.

The other #34 that automatically leaps to my mind is my childhood baseball hero: Kirby Puckett. I probably had a dozen different posters of the Twins' #34 in my bedroom while I was growing up. Even today, I still have a collection of a couple-dozen of Puckett's baseball cards. I still have the Wilson-brand ball-glove emblazoned with Puckett's signature across the palm. Suffice to say: he was another major figure from my childhood, and another example of the greatness of the #34. Fortunately, playing a less physically-abusive sport than Walter Payton, Kirby Puckett's career made it past his 34th birthday (though he was forced into a premature retirement after a freak injury at age 35). But even so, the point remains that Puckett's greatest body of work was already completed by the time he turned 34. That is, by the time that Kirby Puckett was my age, he had already won all of the championships he was ever going to win (2), he had already wracked up the vast majority of all the Gold Gloves and Silver Slugger awards that he was ever going to get (11 of the 12), and all of his Hall of Fame credentials were secure: all wrapped up before #34 ever celebrated his 34th birthday.

So what does all this mean for me, celebrating my 34th birthday today?

Obviously, it's not fair to compare athletes to pastors (or any other types of professions) -- and even granting athletes' accomplishments on the field, the numbers don't say anything about their maturity as persons or their successes as husbands or fathers or humanitarians. Still, as my age flips over to that magical #34, I can't help myself from wondering about my legacy and my mortality. Both Payton and Puckett happened to die at the age of 45 -- just 11 years after their 34th birthdays. So by the time they were at my current stage in life, regardless of career accomplishments, they had already lived over three-quarters of their entire life span! So for me, there is a very real question about how I'm investing my time, my talents, and my treasures in the grander scheme of things, whether I end up living to be 45, 75, or 105. And when I look at the overall scenario, I feel challenged that I haven't "left my mark on the world" in any appreciable way through my first 34 years. I'm not a household name like Walter Payton or Kirby Puckett, and the truth of the matter is that I may never be known in that kind of way.

Still, I believe there's reason for encouragement. Certainly, I think about my children and the legacy that I'm daily establishing through them. I think about the ways that I've tried to live as a disciple of Jesus -- following the example of those before me (1C11:1) and passing things on to those behind me (2T2:2). But at the end of the day, what I really have to celebrate is the fact that, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -- the task of testifying  to the gospel of God's grace" (Acts 20:24). "Whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith" (Philippians 3:7-9).

Birthday #34 is as good a birthday as any to celebrate. But I also appreciate the opportunity to remember the bigger picture -- and that the bigger picture is ultimately way better than anything Payton or Puckett could have ever dreamed of accomplishing on the field.