Older than dirt...

Tomorrow is my brother's birthday (ps wish I was with him to celebrate and I hope it's awesome)....one of those birthdays that seems like an epic milestone at the time and you think to yourself, how did I get so old?!  He's been calling himself as old as dirt for the last little while, but apparently this birthday sends him over the edge to actually being older than dirt.  Being his big sister, this makes me that much older than dirt and it got me thinking...

So many times I find myself using age as something to hide behind...at work I feel young, but with friends I sometimes feel old...I'm not doing a lot of the things that friends my age are.  But you know what?  Life as we know it is just happening in a different order....neither one is better or worse.

I think I spend a lot of time wishing....that I was somewhere else, or even that I am someone else (or maybe even a different version of ourselves)....and not enough time enjoying where I am right now....where God has placed me at this moment. 

I did some intercession with a group of young adults a few weeks ago and one of the verses someone got for me was this:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4

To rejoice is to be delighted, to feel joyful, and to rejoice in something is to have or possess....it's all about acknowledging the joy there is just having time to hang out with God.  I would like to rejoice in life as I know it at this moment better than I do now...at this point on the trail and not just on the mountaintop. Makes me think of a friend from YWAM who often needed to give me that reminder to look for the good instead of whining about the not so good...

So I rejoice in my family, my friends, my home, my church, but most of all my God!  Maybe being older than dirt isn't so bad after all...although I have to say that being around kids usually sets a great example of how to fully be present in the joy of the moment.

ps I can't take credit for the photos...not sure who took the dirt photo, but he/she is an Oxford YWAMer and it was taken in New Zealand, and the one of me and the little girl was taken by one of the girls on my team in Cambodia