I’ll be 65 years old in two months, but I hang out with a lot of young people in my role as a seminary professor. In fact, I started in full-time ministry at age 20—not much different from where my students are now. Over the years, I’ve gained insights that I wish I’d known when I was their age. Here are some of those lessons:

### 1. The world doesn’t revolve around me.
I arrogantly thought it did back then, but now I know the world is much, much, much bigger than I am.

### 2. Decisions I make today will affect the rest of my life.
You never think about the long-term consequences at the time, but I still carry regrets over decisions I made decades ago.

### 3. If it’s God’s plan, He’ll provide a spouse in His time.
I worried too much about getting married when I was in my 20s, but God knew I needed to grow up a bit before sharing my life with someone else. He brought me Pam when I was 30.

### 4. My calling is more general than specific.
Back then, I thought my calling was only to pastor a church, so I limited my thinking to that role. I’ve since learned that God can use me in other roles, too.

### 5. Popularity and power are fleeting.
In those days, I was aiming for something I now know doesn’t last long. Regardless of how popular you think you may be, most of the world still doesn’t know you at all.

### 6. Intentionally building a savings account and retirement funds matters.
The sooner you start saving and preparing for the future, the more compounding interest will help you in the long run. I learned this truth early but still missed some key years of saving.

### 7. I need the church.
When I started pastoring, I saw the church more as a job than the family of God meant to provoke me to godliness and faithful living. Now, I understand how much that family means to me.

### 8. I need to pay attention to the world’s events.
In my 20s, I was hardly a global Christian. Now, I think deeply about the billions of people worldwide who don’t yet know Jesus.

### 9. Life is seldom as bad as it seems.
In the midst of chaos and problems, it’s easy to think life is catastrophic. In my younger years, pessimism sometimes drove me to discouragement and despair. Life’s seldom that bad, though.

### 10. Reading the Bible and praying are more than “check the box” disciplines.
That’s what they were to me back then; now, I know they’re life-giving components of a relationship with God who loves us.

I’m sure I could list other things, but perhaps these reflections encourage you to remember and reflect, too. What do you wish you knew when you were 20?
https://www.christianpost.com/voices/10-things-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-started-ministry-at-age-20.html