I’m starting writing this at 11:01pm in Bangkok, Thailand. In approx. 59 minutes I’ll turn 25 here. It’s another 13 hours back home until I turn 25, though the upside of that is that for me my birthday will now last 36 hours ;).
I never thought that I’d be celebrating my 25th birthday 12 hours ahead of my family, half-way around the world in Bangkok, Thailand. In fact I didn’t even know that being in Thailand would be a possibility until 4 months ago.
This was never a part of the plan, none of this was.
I was supposed to be settled down by now. I know this because it was part of the plan I devised while in high school: graduate with my Bachelor’s at 22, finish Grad school at 24, live independently while pursuing an awesome career at 25, throw in a cute apartment somewhere in the city and maybe a boyfriend/ fiancé and it was the perfect plan.
Living out of my backpack, with a budget of $12 a day for everything, fully dependent on the financial support of others, living stripped of all the luxuries that my life in the States has provided me, never knowing what the next day may hold let alone the next month, screaming in excitement at the sight of A/C or a western style toilet, being broken and broken over and over, finding deeper and deeper intimacy with my God every day, learning day by day to die to my flesh to my desires to myself, understanding what it means to be pursued relentlessly by my Lord, being stripped of all the lies and the garbage that I’ve been carrying around for the past 25 years – NONE of this was a part of my plan.
It may not have been a part of MY plan but this has all been a part of GOD’s plan. Since before I came into being, He has known my path; He knew the road I would take. He knew the twists and turns along the way that would bring me to THIS place – and no I don’t mean Bangkok – I mean this stop on my journey with Him. He had written this beautiful story, a story that has valleys and peaks; it’s a story of brokenness and redemption. It’s MY story, it’s a story that My Father has crafted just for me, it’s a journey that He is walking me through, holding my hand and guiding me. So here I am: a quarter of a century into my story, and it’s just beginning to unfold. It’s a story so much better than any I could have written, and why wouldn’t it be? It’s a story that has been written by the author of time.
“… All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16
It’s now 11:36 only 24 more minutes 
– Jess
