“Happy anniversary/birthday!” the text on my phone reads.
3 years ago I made the biggest and best decision of my life: to give my life to God. In those three years, He’s led me through so much. Big things like my first mission trip, a break up, death of a loved one, working at a church, friendship conflicts. And also small, beautiful memories like cracking up over fireworks gone wrong on our little suburban street, eating doner in Munich with my college roommate, road tripping to watch Hamlet with my parents, and staying up late to binge on Project Runway and lick buttercream frosting off spoons.
This is an extraordinary life, and following God has allowed me to view the simple things through a magnifying lens. Those every day, monotonous actions that somehow add up to create the big, beautiful picture.
That text I received from my Dad so perfectly sums up my relationship with God, one that He offers to everyone who’s willing to accept it.
I am celebrating an anniversary, the union of my life with God’s. In this union, I get to call him friend, father, savior, and king. His plan becomes my plan, despite my sometimes clawing to pull myself away from the terrifying cliff drop that are so often His plans. I like to say that my relationship with God has been a series of Him tossing me in the deep end and teaching me how to swim.
I am celebrating a birthday, the birth of a new life and a more intentional, growing McKenzie. As I clamp onto my old self, it’s like looking at an abstract portrait. Two versions of myself next to each other, blurred together, but one becoming more clear. Setting down selfishness and pride and independence with a sigh and oh so gingerly lifting gentleness and wisdom and patience into my palms. Any good in me is simply a reflection of God’s character.
This life is free for the taking. God sent His son to do what I could not: live a life free from error, receive the punishment I could not handle, and rise again from the grave, conquering fear and shame and insecurity and death.
Maybe you haven’t ever heard it or maybe you need to hear it again, so please, hear these words. You are loved. You can be made whole. You can be set free from guilt. You can live a life you absolutely love, full of purpose.
Al of this because: God loves you. God wants to gather your scattered pieces and carefully place them back in order. Jesus made a way for us to know God, because they love us so much. God has an incredible plan for your life, if you’d like to partner with Him.
God has done all of the work. He is extending grace and love and acceptance to you. The decision is in your hands whether to accept or not.
I pray that next year, you will be celebrating an anniversary/birthday with me.
