Seven Days

One week from today, I am turning twenty-five. TWENTY-FIVE!!!

I didn't think it would matter all that much, I mean, after all, life just keeps going every day, every hour, every minute, every second...nothing can be done to stop time. Even when you die, time may stop for you, but for everyone else, it keeps going.

So I have seven more days of being twenty-four. Seven more days of realizing that at twenty-five, it will just become a down-hill roller coaster to becoming an adult. I've been out of college for two years come this May but I still live like a college student. All I have in my apartment is a day bed, a bookshelf, a camping chair and a fold-out papazzan chair along with a fan and a floor lamp.

Maybe next time around that I get an apartment, I'll start buying real furniture...like a couch. And a coffee table. And end tables. With lamps and maybe a rug. I can get a dresser for my clothes and bookshelves for my books (I keep my books in a box and my DVDs in the bookshelf I now have).

I can't believe that in seven days, I will be a quarter of a century old. I'll be celebrating my twenty-fifth birthday with my best friend Becca and her family. How am I celebrating my twenty-fifth birthday? Non-adult style -pizza and a movie!!! Maybe a cake...or cupcakes.

I can't believe I'm turning twenty-five. I am single, with no prospect of a boyfriend or husband or family...I have no career even though I have a college degree. And I'm going to be living with my parents.

Twenty-five...what a milestone, especially when I believed I wouldn't make it past sixteen. And if I had done it my way, been that much of a coward, if God hadn't reached out to me and given me a second chance, I wouldn't have made it to my eighteenth birthday.

God is amazing. He has held on to me from before I was born and been with me every step of my life. I have turned my back to Him many, many times and yet when I turn back, He is there, waiting for me. He has changed me in so many ways, as tested me for the purpose of refining me, and He has taught me to trust in Him and Him alone. God has carried me through these past twenty-five years and I know without a doubt He will carry through the next twenty-five years. He has blessed me with love and happiness, with friends and family.

He has given me my dreams of college and has shown me the joy of ministry, of teaching His Word to others, of encouraging others in their walks with Him. He has given me a heart for the hurting and the needy. He has given me words to defend the oppressed and stand up for the defenseless.

He has given me a passion for loving teenagers, a joy for loving children and compassion for loving the elderly. He has broadened my vision of ministry, teaching me that focusing on one group isn't His way. His way is all-encompassing, all-loving....with arms wide open.

And that's how I want to live my life -with arms wide open. And I've come to understand that to show and live Christ means I must live with arms wide open...and with a heart wide open as well.

And that's what I will do. I will live Christ and show Christ to everyone...my parents, my family, my friends...but especially to myself. Because if I don't see Christ when I look in the mirror after a day of being petty and resentful and angry...then how will others see Christ in me?