On the day of writing this I am celebrating my birthday and, to be honest, feeling my age.

I will let you into a secret. I am 49 today and entering my 50th year - there is no cure for the common birthday!

George Burns, the actor said "Every morning I get up, I read the obituary page. If my name's not there, I shave."

I realised his morning I am well past all my youthful dreams of playing rugby for England, climbing Mount Everest, seeing my favourite team, Sheffield Wednesday, win the Premiership and owning a Ferrari.

Some wag defined middle age as the time when your age starts to show round your middle'. Today I finally admit to having entered middle-age.

It has been a fascinating 50 years and being in reflective mood I thought back over the incredible events of my life.

When I was a child a man landed on the moon. In my early twenties I bought the first Sinclair spectrum computer, the first commercially produced console. Now every child is computer literate and computers are an everyday part of life. The Channel tunnel was built in my thirties after 200 years of planning, and trips to Europe became commonplace. Lots of things have changed.

One of the great privileges of my job is to be asked to conduct funeral services. I recently took the service of someone who had reached the grand age of 99. I reflected, with her relations, that she had lived through two world wars, the great depression and massive social changes.

Her relatives told me she described the greatest change in her life as the invention of the automatic washing machine! I am constantly fascinated that every life is unique, incredibly special and shaped and changed by the events in society around us.

Sometimes it is good to take stock and look back over our lives, reflecting on the good and bad, the high ideals, the disappointments, the tragedies, the people we relate to, the circumstances we find ourselves in and the gifts and talents we possess.

Christians believe that life is a gift from a gracious God. We are given this precious gift for however long God wills and we have a responsibility to make the very most of it until the day we give and account to him of our stewardship of this life.

Speaking personally the most momentous event in my life was probably becoming a Christian something which truly did change my life (for the better).

After allowing myself a few moments of birthday thoughts on life and the universe I have just been comforted by a quote from a friend: "Age is something that doesn't matter- unless you are a cheese"