Maybe I'm an oddity in life, but I have really enjoyed turning thirty and now being "in my thirties." There was no dramatic emotion that came with the number. In fact, I have enjoyed looking back and seeing so much of the great things I've been blessed with in my life.
God has truly blessed me. I was no one of significance in the world's eyes. I come from a small town, a family that struggled financially my growing up years, none of us held important high-profile positions or were super-educated. And yet, this family molded me, taught me the things in my life that have made me the woman I am today. Material possessions were never of utmost importance, I was told I could be and do anything I put my mind to, and my grandma brought me to church and introduced me to the God that I now serve with my life and being. Despite struggles and even tragedies, my family still remains close and cares for one another to the best of our abilities. They have never been an opposition to the choices I've made with my life, even when it meant moving to a war-zone. I am an incredibly blessed woman.
And being the incredible processor that I am, I always come upon milestones (New Years, the end of an event, Birthdays, holidays and anniversaries) and love to dream about what is ahead....what am I running towards? When I celebrate 41 (hopefully with as much thankfulness as my thirties have ushered in) what will the next ten years between now and then hold? Can it top the last 10 years? It will be difficult to beat...graduation from college and later grad school, joining an organization that seems to release and encourage the gifts and identity God has knit within me, living in Asia for now five years, training teachers, raising up leaders, venturing to places most Americans have never seen, visiting now 28 nations, investing in hundreds of friendships, laughing until my gut has hurt and crying until I had no tears left to cry. Adventure, passion, joy, frustration, friends and confrontations, character refinement, faith, and healing. Man, God has been so GOOD!!! Some of the best gifts of these last years is seeing people come from death into life, from lostness into being found by their God, from feeling alienated from God, to belonging to his family and being able to be a small part of their journey with God.
So, as I begin a new year of life, with ever-deeping friendships, hand-in-hand with a God who loves me so much it hurts and armed with all my life experiences already, I don't want to ever settle for less than God's highest. I want to live life with abandon and not be held by fear of man, not to be boxed in by others' expectations of me, or even my expectations of myself.
Take my life Lord, it's yours...whether the years ahead are few or many, joyful or painful, on the mountain or in the valley, as long as I'm with you it's going to be the ride of a lifetime!
