Do You Feel Old?!?

Serving as a pastor for now about twenty years, it was bad enough when the kids from my first ministry in Calgary, Alberta started having their own children... but now comes another blow...

... this past week my oldest son went and took his driving test for the state of Illinois and passed.

There it is... another official notch in the proverbial "you're an old dude" gun!
It's not all that bad though... I mean the fact is, his Mom is technically even older than me (Don't worry, she never reads my blog... just sort of nods when I tell her about it and says "Uh-huh...")!

It was almost like an out of body experience watching him back the car out of the garage without his mom, another adult or me riding "shot-gun" as it were. He still has a lot of learning to do in my book and the state has the audacity to tell him he is ready to drive our family vehicle without his mom or me in the car with him? Who do they think they are?!?

He looked so.... "independent".

Does that make sense?

It was almost like he didn't need his mom or dad for anything at that point. I mean, I know that's not completely true but the driver's license thing is a significant rite of passage to adulthood in our culture. This is one of those critical points at which what we have invested in our children as they have been and continue to grow into adulthood pretty much shows up.

I'll tell you this much... my son is blessed to have his Mom as his mom because every fiber in my body screamed not to let him even begin learning how to drive... oh it's not that I don't trust him, because I trust him implicitly. I am just not sure about the other 17 year olds out there on the roads.

The upside to all of this however is that having another driver in the family has been helpful... the next hurdle however is on the horizon and getting ever closer (*gulp*)... college.

Man, I'm old.