Age: 28

There are not enough words to describe the immense love and care I have experienced this year, especially for this season: the 28th anniversary of my birth.

All I can honestly say is: God is so extravagantly, abundantly, overwhelmingly loving to His children.

In just one week, one birthday, God answered so many of my prayers and made so many of my wishes come true.

I have never in my life felt so fully and completely loved by my family and friends, just for being me.

And as I reflect in incredible gratitude for the love shown to me, I realize that it is all God's love and grace for me.

We serve an incredible God who loves us so well that many times we are awed into silence or brought to our knees in gratitude.

We love a God who takes our most wild and deep desires and brings them to fruition in His perfect timing so that a blessing can be fully enjoyed.

God's YES is huge! Mind-blowing, earth-shaking, drought-ending.

I am so in awe of a God who loves us so specifically, so intimately, and so abundantly.

It's a love so very undeserved that it's hard to fathom. Cannot be explained, or even fully described. Just experienced.

God has shown me truly that His love has no bounds. That there is no limit to His mercy and compassion for us. That His love is not dependent on how much we want things or deserve things, but simply on who HE is.

God is love.

And on my 28th birthday, I experienced God on an entirely different plane, a whole new level. In a way that has brought me to my knees in gratitude.

I will never understand why the God of the universe chose me to live in His courts, to experience His love, to dance with Him. But I will never, ever, ever take it for granted.

Thank you Jesus for loving me so very well in every season.

Knowing

Today I got out of the boat. And decided to walk on water.

At any point, I could drown. I could see that I'm actually walking on water...an impossible thing...and sink swiftly.

And yet, here I am. It feels like the first time I set foot on African soil with a smile and a dream. The first time I gave an injection to a patient. The first time I held a microphone to sing.

It's a beautiful, terrifying, magical feeling.

I don't know much, but I know I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

And yes, the greatest thing I know is this:

I know you. It's like I have known you my whole life.

It doesn't make sense.

It's not logical.

It's walking on water.

And even if I sink, even if I almost drown,

It was so worth getting out of the boat.

11/9/12