Instructions for a Perfect Birthday Weekend

1. Wake up the morning of your birthday to the first snow fall of the year blanketing summer flowers and green leaves.

2. Slush over to Caribou Coffee to read your Bible and enjoy your free birthday drink.

3. Beat the sunshine before it breaks through the clouds to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Take pictures of the juxtaposition of seasons.

4. Receive phone calls from countries like Nepal, Indonesia, Singapore, Liberia, Ghana, and three different states in the United States.

5. Enjoy a steamy and creamy bowl of turkey soup and a freshly Baked Apple Pastry smothered with warm carmel.

6. Cover your pallet with acrylic paints and transform that canvas that has been collecting dust into a burst of color, texture, and life.

7. Snuggle among pillows on your favorite couch and read the latest young adult fiction novel.

8. Wake up on a crisp Sunday morning and worship God in a community of peop

le that make you smile.

9. Head over to Amy Grady's kitchen for the party, where close friends and family have gathered to celebrate God's blessings over the past 30 years, where there is no shortage of food, where laughter echos in abundance amid games, gifts, and conversations.

10. Fall asleep in a soft, warm bed in a home where you are safe, blessed, and loved.

Thank you to everyone who made my 30th memorable. To God be the glory.

A Potted Plant

In college my room was nicknamed, "The Jungle." When I moved to West Africa in 2006 I had to find homes for over 50 houseplants. My favorite season is Spring when I can be outside digging in the cool soil, getting dirt caked beneath my fingernails, so that I can transform the wasteland of a backyard into a garden paradise.

A plant in the garden thrives. It enjoys the stability of consistent light, water, and soil.

I was that type of plant for a while. My roots had penetrated deep, soaking up the consistency of routine, friends and family close at hand, and a well-paying job that I loved.

There comes a time when a plant must be moved. A sharp-bladed shovel must sever root ball from soil and transplant the garden specimen into a pot. With proper fertilization, and regular water and sunlight, the plant will do well until its new location has been identified.

I've been that potted plant for nearly three years now.

In 2006, I said goodbye to my friends and family, my car, my home, and my garden. Though I enjoyed the greenhouse of the tropics for a season, I now find myself moving from place to place in my Jeep Wrangler. It's a simple life, and for that I am thankful. I am mobile.

Yet with the roots bound against the inside of some terracotta, I look forward to a garden somewhere, sometime.

God is faithful. In a way we are all potted plants. The only garden that will really satisfy is the one we will be planted in after we hear the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."