Happy Birthday to Me

According to Spock, and he should know, I am 43 today. So, since it's my birthday I feel that gives me the prerogative to say whatever I want. ;D

It's very simple, actually. I've already received the first and second greatest gifts I can receive. They are made clear in this song, which just happens to be one of the best Casting Crowns songs ever:

Gift 1: I was that lost cause, I was that outcast, but You died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet.

Gift 2: Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers; Let our heats be led by mercy; Help us reach with open hearts and open doors; O, Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks Yours.

I will admit that the latter was an incredibly painful lesson to learn, and I only learned it last year. It was, quite honestly, a living hell. But here on the other side, I know it was the best possible thing that could have ever happened. To be entirely truthful, I am even grateful to the people who put us through that hell. God works all things together for good for those who are His and are called according to His purpose. What people mean for evil, God means for good. I understand completely what Joseph was saying. But I hope that other people never have to, coz you really have to go through huge difficulties before you can.

To close, I am thankful for where God has brought us over this last year. We are in a better place than we ever could have hoped. It's not perfect, coz we are still human and life is still gonna stink sometimes, that's just the way it goes. I thank God for holding us in His hands despite others attempts to pull us out. I hope, most of all, that my children, the three oldest of whom had to go through this with us, will understand all this and live it fully so they can truly be salt and light in the earth.

Below are some, OK, quite a few, pictures and videos of things we've been enjoying since being set free. (BTW, if that statement offends you, and I know it will offend some, is it really any different than the insults you consistently hurl at people like me and my family, not to mention the eye-rolling, for making the decision to leave your churches to attend a church that believes that love of our neighbors is as equally biblical as so-called good theology? Think about it for a while.) I did finally have to stop, coz it's time to get the kids ready for bed. :D