Turning 40

On Friday evening at the resort in Nuweiba I take the time to think about my life in my 30’s. I have been so blessed – not to be confused with having been easy – and so much in my life has changed. I had just turned 30 when Tyler joined us – a wonderful addition to Wesley who was already 18 months and Drake was 7.

I was 31 when I made enough time to hear God call my name for ministry. What seemed like insanity at the time now feels as if I finally live in my own skin. Those years of university are all a haze with two young boys in Hamilton while I struggled with a full time course load in Toronto. I often chose to quit but every time God would find me in a quiet place and call my name again.

In 2005 my trip to Jerusalem with St. George’s College changed everything for me. This place, this land, these people call to me and own a piece of my heart. As graduation approached a meeting with Barry Foster changed the course of my life again and out to Calgary we came. Trusting God, truly trusting God, sometimes means jumping in knowing that Gods grace will sustain you.

We settled in, barely getting by but receiving such love and support (emotional, spiritual and financial) from people that we barely knew. Ordination, ministering, ordination and priesthood, and it seems that I had accomplished the goals that God set out for me some 10 years before. My children flourish, my husband finds his groove, my mother completes our extended family unit and I know that I have been blessed.

I sit on the beach in this resort watching the sun grow dim in the sky and say good-bye to my thirties. They were great so my forties can only be better.

I am in Egypt when the sun dawns on my 40th birthday. My fellow pilgrims embarrass me by singing happy birthday in the restaurant. I feel so blessed. Security stops and border crossings and suddenly we are back in Jerusalem and I am home. A phone call home after five days in the desert to catch up with my family, an intimate dinner with Irene ( a new friend ) and Jill ( an old friend ) and I have had the most perfect, perfect birthday I could have every wished for.

Thank God from whom all blessings flow....