Hopefully it’s pretty obvious that my list is hardly exhaustive. It’s more of a snapshot than anything else. But the more I think of it, it dawns on me that the last ten years comprises almost 40% of my life, and what a 40% it’s been, which brings us to the next ten years.

Here are my predictions for myself, the Boldman family, and the world in general for the next ten years. Obviously I have no real insight into the particulars of world events in the coming years, so it may not be a good idea to make any drastic life decisions based on the words that follow:

Personal Accomplishments
Starting in February, I will be taking classes toward my M.A. in Theological Studies from Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL. The degree that I’m attempting should take roughly 2-2.5 years for a full-time student to complete. I, on the other hand, am planning to take it somewhat more slowly (though not at a snail’s pace either). My hope is to finish somewhere near the halfway point through the decade (Hey, mastering theology takes time. You don’t want to rush these kinds of things).

As far as other personal aspirations, I’m not entirely sure. I could go über-cliché and say that I’d like to write a book, but I think that might be a little ambitious. Instead of boldly proclaiming my intentions to publish, how about simply saying that in the next decade, I’d like to grow the influence that I have that allows me to teach God’s word to other people.

The Boldman Clan
By the end of the coming decade, our little goober will be close to turning 13. I remember being 13, and as a youth pastor, I get to spend a lot of time with people who are in the vicinity of 13.

I am petrified.

I kid. I kid. Actually, I have high hopes for our family battling the evil that is the “tween years” (and I hope that by the end of the decade, someone comes up with a better term than tween). Overall, our kid is a very good kid. He’s fairly well-behaved and as far as 2.5-year-olds go, he’s pretty even-tempered. Most of the credit for this goes to his startlingly-above-average-looking mother. She is a great mom, and between the two of us, we’re trying to be the best parents our kid can have. It’s a tough job, but it’s one we’re facing head on. Hopefully our current hard work will result in a somewhat well-adjusted 12.5-year-old.

The Church
The Church will continue to experience the growing pains of trying to identify how it will reach post-modern Western culture. Will we have it figured out by the end of 2010? I’m not sure I see it happening, but I do think things will look radically different if the Church is going to be relevant to the soon-to-be 20-somethings.

The problem, with this is that I think we’ll continue to see a widening disconnect between generations in the Church. We’ll most likely see a swell of birth-22-year-olds, and continued growth in the age range of 40+, but the 23-39 group (unless we start doing something different) will be (seemingly) mysteriously absent.

The Rest of the World
Now for predictions about the stuff that I have little or no control over:

• Gas Prices – Yep, we’ll all be paying $50 per gallon. It’s just too bad that this will result in none of our kids being able to afford college.
• The Office – Unfortunately I have to agree once again with Matt that The Office will simply become almost too painful to watch, but, of course, we’ll all keep watching.
• Tech - We should see the iPhone 14 sometime during the summer of 2020. Of course it will have 8G data speeds and will be implanted directly behind your retina. For an additional $15 per month users will be allowed to actually become one consciousness with Wikipedia, or you can jailbreak and get it for free.
• Global Warming – Scientists will once and for all prove that Global Warming is actually a real thing, which will of inevitably cause most of the world to accept the tank top and flip-flops as proper office attire.
• Politics – Realizing that a traditional Two-Party System cannot possibly be representative of 400 million citizens, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party will each splinter into 318 “sub-parties” (kind of like the Tea Party, but with less rallies), giving us a true 636-party system of government. By having more voices giving input, the Congress and the Senate will finally be able to have an intellectually stimulating debate on issues that really matter to the American public (like Team Edward vs. Team Jacob).

And there you have it: my predictions for the coming decade. Have you anything to add?

I was working up all kinds of harebrained (and yes, I spelled that correctly) schemes. I was down to the wire when I got the idea to excuse myself so I could go to the restroom. Then, like a Saharan nomad looking for and oasis, I started looking around the restaurant looking for someone that I knew who could spot me some cash (which I would have promptly paid back upon retrieving my wallet). I had no such luck.

There I was, in the busiest restaurant in a town of only 3,000 or so people, and I didn’t know anyone in the restaurant, and I wasn’t going to just ask a stranger for money. After all I had my pride (which I have since realized is an altogether foolish notion). Then, in a moment of divine revelation (*Disclaimer: God had NOTHING to do with this), I looked up to realize that I was about 40 feet away from my date and only 5 feet away from the front door.

What did I do? Well, I won’t spoil the story by giving away the ending, but I will tell you that she and I did not date for very much longer. Now you may draw your own conclusions.

Why do I tell you this story? Simply because I forgot my wallet today for the first time since that day six years ago. It’s miserable. I even made it to the counter of a local restaurant and started ordering before I realized what I had done. How miserable is that? And I was REALLY hungry, too. This time, however, I simply went hungry. Overall, a better decision, but still not without its consequences. I’ll be eating four of these later.

The Verdict: Forgetting your wallet once every six years is certainly not the end of the world. It can make for a miserable day, but if I can choose to see the glass has half full (which I do), then I can say it’s really hard to spend money when you don’t have your wallet with you. And maybe that’s a good thing.