What better day to relaunch the Ask Pastor John podcast than on January 11th, 2013, a day

which happens to also be John Piper's birthday.

Our aim is to connect you with Pastor John more frequently through these brief podcasts

and you can stay tuned to the website desiringgod.org and our Twitter and our Facebook feeds

for more episodes as they come along in the future.

Today on your birthday, Pastor John, we want to hear from you because I know when birthday

is an anniversary is coming around, you spend a lot of time thinking and reflecting and

a lot of time in prayer.

And I want to ask you what is your prayer today on this, your 67th birthday?

My prayer is first overflowing with thankfulness to God.

I'm thankful for 67 years of physical life and they've been remarkably easy, I think,

from my standpoint compared to most people in the world.

I haven't, at least from memory standpoint, been all that sick, I can remember times.

It's been difficult, but a relatively smooth 67 years, I'm thankful for 61 years of

life in Christ and his amazing faithfulness to me.

I'm thankful for 44 years of Noel and her rock solid commitment to stand by me in everything

I'm thankful for 32 and a half years with my church, what a gift they've been to me.

I think I've gotten to know God more and people more in these 32 and a half years than ever

could have in any other path that he would have given me.

I'm thankful for 40 years of parenting with the ups and downs and joys and sorrows of that

and thankful deeply for my five children who love me.

It's got a beautiful email this morning from one of my kids just saying,

...