My Birthday Wish

So, today I turn 37.


Not a particularly exciting milestone...


I mean, there's none of that new driving possibility that you get when you turn 16. I've been an official adult for longer than I was a child. No need to celebrate being able to go out and drink like I potentially would have 16 years ago, if I hadn't been a teetotaler married nursing student.


There's not even the dread like most people have when they turn the big 4-0.


37 is a pretty plain number.


Doesn't seem like much to get excited about.


Just an ordinary day with hitting the snooze button too many times and lecture and raising my voice at Caleb and tripping going up the stairs to my office.


Just an ordinary day...


but really, what is an ordinary day?


Really, isn't every day full of opportunity?


No minute is the same even if we do the same things over and over.


The mundane is the beautiful if we pause to really breathe it in.


On this day, 37 years ago, I took my first breath, and each day I've continued to breathe in, not always as deeply as I should. Somehow, I've managed to stumble through life and make it here, to this exact moment.


And each moment is a gift. Each moment is full of first chances, if I don't squander them away.


Y'all, I've been guilty.


Guilty of expecting too much and being disappointed... but also guilty of not expecting enough.


Guilty of not appreciating all that has been given to me.


Guilty of sleepwalking through years.


Today, on my 37th birthday, I'm thinking of how different things were a year ago... and yet the past is the past.


The only thing I have is right now, this moment. You, reading this on the other side of that screen? It's all you've got, too.


We are not promised tomorrow...


but we are given unlimited possibilities in the here and now.


And really, those opportunities aren't for us.


We were put on this earth for service... service to God. Service to others.


So, as I'm contemplating looking ahead, past this birthday, I'm resolved (again) to make the most of each day. Each gift.


By loving even harder than I have, even when it hurts.


By making myself vulnerable to others by opening up, even when I'm scared.


By looking people in the eye and making sure they know they are important.


By making this world a little better, so that people will say that my life was a gift.


There may never be a parade set aside on September 7th because a great person was born on that day...


but maybe there will be a few people who will look me up in Heaven and tell me I made a difference.


That's my birthday wish...


Won't you join me?