23, Dancing Queen

This past week I got to celebrate my 23rd birthday here in Albania. The day was full of some sweet time with my team and helping with the outreach with the church we are working with this month. We spent the morning/lunch hour handing out flyers to the event near one of the local high schools, we had coffee with a couple of the pastors and some of the young adults from the church, I got to call my parents and talk to them, my team perfected the Footloose line dance, then we got to hang out with more of the youth in the evening. At the event, we played a Kahoot where each team had to name the US state that was pictured (my team won), we taught the Albanian youth how to do the Footloose line dance, we made s’mores, they sang “happy birthday” to me in both English and Albanian, and then they taught us some traditional Albanian dances (my favorite being the penguin hop). In the evening, my teammates made me one of my favorite meals (a chicken curry – which was sweet because they had never made this before), and then they took me upstairs where they had set up a beautiful homemade “happy birthday” banner, blown up some balloons, and had a passionfruit cheesecake with candles waiting for me. All in all, my day turning 23 was a really good day. But let me backtrack a bit. 

One of the first things I did when I turned 23 was cry. I had been one of the first of my teammates awake. I went into the upper room we have. I did a little workout, I read my Bible, listened to some worship music, and began to journal. As I was journaling and talking to the Father, I began to weep. There were a few things I was shedding tears about. I was missing my family. And that’s what started it. Birthdays are a big deal in my household and it felt weird to be celebrating today without them. As I cried about missing my family and home, I was listening to Christ the Lord is With Me by Steffany Gretzinger, and I heard the lyrics “anywhere with You is home” and immediately I began to shed more tears. I recognized that I am part of the best family there is: the family of God. And that when I am abiding in Him, I am home. I, then, started to reflect on all that the Lord has done in the last year of my life. Who I was a year ago, was an incredibly sad, heartbroken human. I thought I would be stuck in that sadness. But God brought me through that and brought me more into His love and His comfort and His guidance. The growth that the Lord has brought me through in the last year of my life blows my mind and I get teary-eyed thinking about it. 

Let me fast forward a bit now, as I talked to my dad on the phone that day, he said something that’s had me thinking: 23 means you’re a real adult. I’m no longer a college student. I’m on my own. I am living an “adult life,” if you will. So much of my time has been spent as a student, but now as I enter into this year, I am no longer a student, in an academic sense, but rather I am a full-grown adult. This may seem weird, because I’ve legally been an adult for years now, but I fully feel as if I am truly beginning to make decisions that allow me to be on my own as an independent person, apart from her family. As I thought about how I wanted to begin my “adult life,” the song Dancing by Elevation Worship came to mind. The song is one of my favorites right now, but I think it’s the way I want to continue my life. I want to dance with Jesus. Through the valleys, and the mountains, wherever He steps and leads me, there I want to be dancing with Him. He’s brought me through so much and will continue to do that. And that’s how I want to live my life as a full-grown adult: dancing with Jesus.

Makayla a year ago would not imagine the person she is today. Makayla now can’t imagine the person she will be in a year. I am so excited I get to spend this next year of my life dancing with Jesus, continually growing in ways I can’t even begin to imagine.