This Ransomed Heart

I am in the midst of a 9-month discipleship program through Frontier Alliance International, called Emmaus Online. In this week's lesson, which was on the interconnectedness of faith, hope and love, one of our instructors, Stephen Struebing, shared about a dream he had, which reminded me of a dream I had in August of 2015. In the first part of this dream, I was in a church. I think it was my or someone else’s birthday and we were having a worship service instead of a typical birthday party. I went to the basement of the church and there found a few friends from my old life, drinking, and smoking. They asked me to stay there with them to party. I begged them to come upstairs with me to the service, but they wouldn’t come. I left them to go back upstairs and the moment I walked back into the sanctuary, the entire church lifted from the ground, leaving the basement part behind, and lifted into the sky. My vision changed at this point like I was in space and could see the

This was truly a birthday weekend to remember. My sister took the picture below and said it was the perfect summary of my birthday this year: looking at a sad happy birthday balloon stuck in a tree. But in that moment, I was looking at that sad little balloon thinking how incredibly blessed I was to be surrounded by my awesome roomies, my friends, my family...at the park, eating ice cream (though it was freezing cold), and knowing that everything, somehow, is going to be okay. I turned 29 this weekend and it was also the 5 year anniversary of my returning to Christ. And in the midst of COVID-19 uncertainty and craziness...social distancing...and the impending feeling (most likely from watching WAY too many apocalyptic/zombie movies) that as I am running outside, a group of lifeless zombies are going to turn the corner and chase me down the street...it was actually one of the very best, most special weekends I’ve ever had. My mom is stuck here for the time being as she is