Ready, Set, LIVE.

Today is my 23rd birthday. Exactly a year ago today, I distinctly remember waking up in my bedroom, and no sooner had I opened my eyes I sensed the Lord saying something to me. Yes, Lord? "This is the Year." That was all I got. Was my mind playing tricks on me? No, it was too early in the morning for my brain to conjure up a complete sentence, much less one that had to do with the days ahead. The Spirit was speaking, ever so gently. And with His whisper, my mind began to wander to the endless possibilities of all that statement could entail. When I inquired to know more, it was like I just knew that God was about to reveal the answers to so many questions I had asked for most of my young adult life and to shed light on a path that I never could have found the strength to walk down on my own. And all this occurred before I had even gotten out of bed.

And what a year it was! A year of opportunity. A year of decisions. A year of relationships, old and new. 2009/22 brought me into a new season of which was very hard to adapt. Many blessings and many lessons learned. Good and bad. Many times I found myself wanting to be heard by anyone!? Anyone!? Wanting to scream, cry and laugh all at the same time, I felt confused, I felt lost. Many times I felt like a complete stranger walking down the streets of South Beach where tourist flourish all around and where people seem to be on permanent vacations. I found myself pondering on why I felt sooo different so inadequate. I wondered if I was making it a big deal or if I was just being ungrateful. I have family, great friends, an awesome fiancé and a very close God who I can talk to at anytime, I knew I wasn’t alone but I felt alone. I searched deep within my soul and I came to a realization that it wasn’t loneliness but fear that had penetrated deep within my soul, it was fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of rejection in a place where I didn’t fit in.

This morning as I awoke, I was immediately brought back to January 19, 2009, that fateful morning when God dropped something into my spirit that would bare fruit in the coming days and cause me to live my life in a constant state of expectation and wonder over all that the Lord was so sovereignly accomplishing in my life. But I must say, as I sat on the edge of my bed and turned over all the events of my 22-year-old life, I was at a loss. I felt as if it was yesterday that I turned 22, that I started attending a new church, moved to a new house, switched cell phone numbers more than once, loss communication with old friends, made new friends, reestablished my relationship with my physical dad of which I am ever sooo grateful to God, got engaged, switched jobs, became jobless and found a new set of dreams to pursue after, all in the same year.

Maybe it's the constant reminder I see on television and magazines ads and storefront windows that youth is something to be coveted but, in reality, can never be held on to for very long. It is fleeting. Our very lives are slipping through our fingers. Or maybe I'm at a turning point, the question looming overhead, "where do we go from here?" After a year of such blessings and change, now what? I haven't a clue. Truth be told, I wanted to be awakened ever so sweetly by the same prompting, a promise I could cling to for the coming year, something...ANYTHING.

But I know my God and I will trust Him even when He is silent. I know the way He cares for His children, the way He cares for me. I know His faithfulness and the ways that He has proven it over and over in my life. I know His mercies, how they wash over me with each new day. I know that what He says is truest of true, and I can stake my very life on the foundation of His Word. Thank You, Jesus. Each new day is full of the richest promises. Promises that cannot be broken. Promises spoken from the Father's heart to ours. Praise Jesus Christ!

So bring it on, 23. I am not afraid to be surrounded by uncertainty anymore. It only increases my faith. I am not afraid to be another year older. Each day is a gift. I aspire to walk by the Spirit at all times, loving and living and giving and serving with every fiber of my being, every minute, every single day, knowing that each day is only moving me closer to the Day of all days, when I will finally see His face. But there's no time to waste, our time here is limited. Ready, set, LIVE.