I'M GOING TO FLORIDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to my awesome parents, I will be joining them for a week of sand, sun, and seafood at Daytona Beach, Florida. The added bonus is that I get to see my best friend Jaime and meet her boyfriend Phil. YEAH!!!!! I'm am so excited, I'm giddy!

The only downfall is that I will be away from Dustin for 2 weeks. Yuck. But if you know me at all you know that Kelli with a tan is a happier, healthier Kelli. =)

As of today, I've been alive for 29 years. Twenty...nine....2....9.... I don't feel any different really. I do feel myself getting a little older- physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. I look back on 5 years ago and see growth, which is always an exciting thing. I hope this is how I feel with each new birthday, a feeling of growth, a thankfulness for change within myself, gratefulness for all of God's blessings over the years, and a hopefulness that life will just keep getting better and growth will continue with each new day.

Over coffee this morning, Dustin and I reflected on the big 3-0 which is right around the corner. We both feel like we're going to embrace our thirties, knowing that new adventures await us- having kids, possibly buying a home, paying off debt, being in ministry full time and living life with amazing friends and family. I never though I'd be 30 before I had my first child. I don't know yet how to feel about that, if I should in fact feel anything at all, but I wouldn't change how my life has played out for anything in the world.

We also talked about what our life would be like if we had started dating in college. We probably would have lived in married student housing (oh no!!), I would have moved to NYC with him (Yeah!!), I might not have got an MBA (booh!), I have no idea what kind of job I would have worked, maybe Starbucks (cool!) maybe Administrative Assistant for the church (uh...). We both would have missed out on amazing friendships and experiences. Our time living alone has prepared us so well for marriage. We have an appreciation for one another that would not have been there otherwise. So, I am reminded, once again, that God's plans are divine and mine are not. I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason.

I'm thankful that on my 29th birthday I'm living in Portland, I'm working for The Salvation Army, we are a part of Evergreen, I have great friends in Portland and around the world, my family is faithful through the long distance, and I am married to the most amazing man on earth. I can say with full confidence that life truly is so good.

1 Corinthians 4:20

“For the Kingdom of God I not just a lot of words; it is living by God’s power.”

I read the Golden Compass series a few months ago. It’s written by an atheist so I know some Christians have issues with reading it. It was an entertaining story and it definitely didn’t persuade me to think that God doesn’t exist. In fact, it had the opposite affect. It reminded me of how powerful God really is. In the story, humans are attempting and eventually succeed at dethroning and killing God. God is portrayed as a old, decrepit, dying man that relies on angels to help him get around. He eventually dies of old age. It was humorous to me as I read the story about how God was portrayed, it was just so….wrong. Completely and utterly wrong. By very definition, it was wrong. It would be like describing a dog by the way they chirp and fly around. That’s just wrong. That’s not the definition of a dog at all. That is something completely different (namely, a bird).

That’s how God was portrayed, by using the complete opposite definition. God by very definition can’t be thwarted by human kind. That’s why he is a god, because he is greater than humans. It was ridiculous and foolish to read about a mere man with armies of other mere men, with animals, and technology and whatever else battling to take down God. The true God, the God that I have grown up knowing and loving and trusting, could destroy them all with a blink of his eye. But the God I know wouldn’t. Instead of showing his power through brute force, he chose to show it through humility and submission. Instead of commanding from high above, he chose to come down, to squat down next to us at our level and talk with us.

God’s power is so much more than these simple words and yet I see it in simple ways all the time. God’s power is seen in the miracle of a baby being born, in the seasons changing, in the tides of the ocean, in the healing of destructive behavior, in the forgiveness of his people, in the unconditional love of the absolutely unlovable, namely us…me.

God’s power is someone like me serving him, believing in him, living in that power, all the days of my life, never giving up on it, never swaying from it, but relying on it more and more every day. I see living in God’s power in my grandmother. She began following Jesus in her early thirties. She’s turning 80 this year. 50 years!! 50 years of believing that the God who has given and taken away is alive and real and loving and powerful, that a relationship with him is worthy of 50 years. I am amazed by her faithfulness, by her honest love of Jesus and his people, and by her heartfelt desire to continue to live in God’s power every moment of every day.

I want so much to live in God’s power everyday, but I don’t know exactly how to do that. I’m still learning what that looks like day in and day out for the rest of my life. I don’t want my faith to just be words, I want it to be lived out in God’s power through me. I’m thankful to my grandma for showing me what that looks like for the last almost 29 years of my life. I look forward to my 50 years of faithfulness.