This Good Friday, I turn 30 years old. Many people dread reaching their next milestone birthday, which becomes a reminder of their mortality and how life will change with age (often not for the better). I personally feel differently about this. I strongly believe that these milestones are the cost we pay to enjoy life’s joys and blessings over the year. As I turn 30, I can start to feel that I am getting older. I cannot survive on the amount of sleep I could 10 years ago, and an all-nighter is no longer a casual proposition. My hairline has receded slightly, and there are some thinner spots on top. But these changes are part of growing up, and without them, I would never get to enjoy the wonderful things God has given me in my life. As I turn 30, I’ve been married to my best-friend for nearly 5 years, and later this year I will become a dad. This is a gift that only time has offered to me, and I will gladly age if it means I get to watch my child grow and become the amazing person that God has made them to be.
As I look back at the past decade, I am amazed at how much things have changed. When I was 20, I was living in Bristol and doing my Theology degree at Trinity College Bristol. I had no idea what my life would be like or where God was calling me. Since then, I have lived in Kettering, Durham, Oakham, Greetham and Welford. I met and married Cecily. I got a dog (which I never thought would happen) and three rabbits. I have spent 7 years in full-time ministry, two as an intern, and four as a curate, a year looking after my own parishes in Corby. I finally completed my 52 books a year challenge in 2024, completed my Master’s (with Merit) in 2022, been on whirlwind travels across the world, and ran a half-marathon in 2025.
Overall, I can look back on my twenties with so much to be thankful for. It has been a good decade. What I am most proud of is the way I have changed and grown as a person. Most of all, I’m glad I have grown more compassionate. God has shaped my heart with more of his grace. I have grown in wisdom and learned to think more before I act. I am more adventurous and willing to try new things. I have become less uptight and more relaxed (though I am still always on the go). I feel less certain of the world, but more certain of the one who holds it.
Most of all, I am grateful for God’s goodness and blessings to me, especially for my wife, Cecily. I feel so blessed that God has given me a wife and best friend who brings out the best in me. Thank you, Cecily, for helping me become the person God is calling me to be. I love you.
Looking forward to my 30s, I am so excited for what is in store. I’ve written out two lists. My 30 for 30s List, which contains 30 things I would like to do in my 30s. And also, 30 Books for my 30s. I’ve attached them both below for you to see.
As a final note, I want to close on the words from our final hymn at our Maundy Thursday Service:
Be still, my soul:
your God will undertake
to guide the future
as he has the past.
Your hope, your confidence
let nothing shake,
all now mysterious
shall be clear at last.
Be still, my soul:
the tempests still obey
his voice, who ruled them
once on Galilee.
30 for 30s List
- Become a Dad
- Run a Marathon
- Run the London Marathon
- Write a Book and Publish It
- Cycle up Alpe D’Huez
- Climb all 3 Peaks
- Visit every English Cathedral
- See Swan Lake at the Ballet
- Go to the Opera
- See the Importance of Being Earnest
- Take the kids to Disneyland
- Read Danny the Champion of the World to Squidge
- Walk part of the Camino
- Watch the Snooker at the Crucible
- Cecily and I see Coldplay
- Family trip to the Proms
- See Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum
- The 3 big London Museums with the kids – Natural History, Science, and V&A
- See Michelangelo’s David
- Visit Aberdeen
- Visit Windsor Castle
- See the Mona Lisa
- Visit Versailles
- Visit Istanbul
- Do a full monkey bar
- Do a complete pull up with 10 consecutive reps
- Break my 5k PB (23.25)
- Watch football at Wembley Stadium
- Record an EP
- Go to Wimbledon (to watch the tennis)
30 Books for My 30s
- The Complete Works of Shakespeare
- Church Dogmatics – Karl Barth
- Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
- Institutes of Christian Religion – John Calvin
- 1984 – George Orwell
- Lord of the Flies – William Golding
- The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela
- The Apocrypha
- East of Eden – John Steinbeck
- Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
- Fear and Trembling – Soren Kierkegaard
- Dominion – Tom Holland
- Transforming Mission – David Bosch
- Iliad – Homer
- The Odyssey – Homer
- City of God – Augustine of Hippo
- David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
- Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
- Bringing Up The Bodies – Hilary Mantel
- The Mirror and the Light – Hilary Mantel
- Paradise Lost – John Milton
- Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
- The Silmarillion – J.R.R. Tolkien
- Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
- Ulysses – James Joyce
- Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
- Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer
- War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
- The Hebrew Bible & The Greek New Testament
Shakeel Nurmahi 