New Beginnings: Returning Home, Celebrating 40, and Healing
It’s been one week and four days since I have been back in the U.S. To say I am happy to be home is an understatement. I enjoyed my time abroad. I needed the time away more than I knew or could ever imagine. I am a better person because of my time abroad and how God used that time to work on me. AND it is amazing to return to familiar spaces, with a new attitude, new focus, new vision, and a new heart.
Just four days after I came back to the U.S., I celebrated my 40th birthday. If you’d asked me last year what I thought I’d be doing or wanted to do for my 40th, I would have said celebrating with friends, perhaps on a trip somewhere adventurous. But this year as I prepared to return to this side of the “pond” the only thing I could fathom doing on my birthday was spending time with my family … so that is exactly what I did! I woke up on Thursday feeling grateful. I completed my morning prayer and devotion, opened a few gifts, did some minor things around the house and got on the road. I stopped over to have lunch with one of my closest friends. This was my first full meal in three days since I also decided to fast leading up to my birthday. By the time I saw my mom in the early evening, I was overjoyed! We had a relaxing evening. No bells and whistles. No birthday cake. No fancy gifts. Just quality time with the woman who has loved and nurtured me since birth. I could not have asked for a better day.
The next few days were more of the same. Lots of family time and then returning back to my own neighborhood to celebrate with friends. It’s hard to believe my birthday this year was such a drastic difference from last year and actually any other birthday I have had. So much of my birthday represents this new chapter of my life. I’ve shared much of it in my previous blog posts, but simply echo here that I am grateful God can still do a new thing in me at 40. I am grateful that I open this chapter with new revelations, new mercies and new grace. I am grateful that I am still able bodied to fulfill even a portion of what I believe God has called me to. I am grateful that I am surrounded by loving friends and family who pray with and for me, AND are also on their own spiritual journeys. I am grateful that I have a dream planted in my heart that is not of my own accord. I am grateful that I was blessed with one more chance (and prayerfully many more) to see and spend time with my family. And I am grateful that through the ways in which I have been changed, I can see my cup overflowing in the lives of people around me.
I’ve also spent the last week or so going through old storage bins filled with pictures, notes, and other random trinkets. This walk down memory lane brought lots of laughter, but also tears. The picture I chose for this blog post is from 7 years ago. I remember the day like it was yesterday. There I was in one of my friend’s weddings, extremely happy for her and honored to be one of the few selected to be a part of her special day. But inside my heart was crushing. I was hurting so badly I couldn’t see my way out of my pain. I didn’t know that over the course of the next few years I’d continue to sink deeper and deeper into periods of no regard for the choices I made or who I hurt. It has taken me SEVEN years to heal. SEVEN years to see a new start for my life. SEVEN years to find my way back to Christ in a way that brings new possibility, new purpose, new joy, and new fulfillment. In this regard, I am also grateful that God has kept me; that my life is not a full reflection of the choices I made; that God’s grace and mercy have been my ever present help; that even when I turned my back to God, He did not turn His back on me. Perhaps most of all, I am grateful that “… He that has begun a great work in [me] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” Philippians 1:6, NIV Translation.
I look forward to sharing the new journeys and ventures from this season. Stay tuned :-)!
You can read about my last few birthdays here:
Turning 33: https://sabrinatcherry.com/2012/07/15/its-my-re-birthday-7/
Turning 34: https://sabrinatcherry.com/2013/07/29/my-birthday-my-re-birth-day/
Turning 35: https://sabrinatcherry.com/2014/07/21/birthday-thoughts/
Turning 36: https://sabrinatcherry.com/2015/07/18/its-my-birthday-thank-you/
Turning 37: https://sabrinatcherry.com/2016/07/18/its-my-birthday-and-what-happened-at-the-party/
Turning 38: https://sabrinatcherry.com/2017/07/18/happy-birthday-to-me/
Turning 39: https://sabrinatcherry.com/2018/08/03/chapter-39-the-year-of-letting-go/