Episode 59 ; Renewal - Happy Birthday

SO thankful for another journey around the Sun!!  This week we will talk about the renewal we are given thru Him as we are uniquely made for His purpose 

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Transcript

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This little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine. Hello and welcome back to Shine. I am your host, Nicole Florence. And yesterday was my birthday. Yes, so thank you for all who reached out and wished me a happy birthday. 57 years around the sun, praise be. And it really made me think about the sense of renewal, sense of restart. You know, every year on my birthday, I definitely will reflect on birthdays gone by, you know, different types of celebrations. Um it's such a great time to remember, reflect, understand how far, you know, you've come, everything you've been through, you know, with our new phones and whatnot, you know, you'll get the year in recap, you know, birthdays of the past, which I love, you know, looking at those. And as much as it is a time to reflect on all the good times and the celebrations, um, it's also a time to reflect on all the things that we have been brought through. As I look at my pictures, it's, you know, I mean, we love to take pictures of the happy times. It is unusual for us to take pictures of times where we were maybe in deepest sorrow or sadness, which is why I like to journal, um, I feel, and that we need to reflect on those times too, because birthdays will remind us of how God's providence puts us in a much better posture and position and place than what we were a year ago. It's also why I like a spring birthday, because there's that sense of renewal, rebirth, planting of the flowers, hearing the birds, although I think we're getting prepared for the storms if you can hear the winds. But on your birthday, it is such a special feeling. And I'm sure you all know, you know, from the morning you wake up throughout the day when you have this sense of feeling incredibly special, you know, special to those around you as you receive, you know, acknowledgments, special gifts that um are unique to only you, that people who know you, or maybe you even hear from people you haven't heard from in a long time that say, hey, have a special day. It is a day where you feel seen and heard and valued, and and not that those people don't do that on other days, but you guys know what I'm talking about. There's just something, what do the French say, je ne sais quoi, I don't know how to say it, um, about your birthday, and to know that you were uniquely made, to know that you are uniquely here on earth by the Creator and given a special uh gift and a special purpose that no one else has been given. And to have a special day where people will actually say to you, I am glad you were born, um, I'm glad that I know you or you have been impactful in their life in some way is pretty amazing. And you know, I don't take that type of attention well, but I'm learning to be in a better uh place to receive it, but it also reminds me that I still have much more to do. I am still here for a reason, uh, for God's purpose. And every birthday that goes by I think to myself, especially as I've gotten older, what is it, God, that you still need me to do? And as I've gotten older, that is something I definitely reflect on on my birthday. Um, being thankful for another year, being thankful for another day, being thankful for another breath, but also being thankful for that special purpose that I have been given. And I was thinking about how wisdom and discernment, I I hope as I pray for that each year, um, has even changed how I celebrate my birthday. I was thinking of years past, of when I was younger, and I wanted, you know, special uh dinners, or I wanted um to do something special with my friends. Or oh yes, I remember my 21st birthday at University of Illinois. Um yeah, it it was it was quite the uh evening with friends. Um and then as I've gotten even older, um, how I'm trying to really be aware that my birthday is not necessarily just about me, but about all those who are surrounding me, all of those who are kind of woven in this tapestry of life with me. And now I love to put on kind of a joyful music celebration where we can all gather and and sing and dance and be joyful, and not just for people I know, but people who um I don't know, who I'd like to know. Um, you know, something that I think the world needs is a communal day of rest and and dance and a sense of joy and peace where we can just surround each other with all of that. And as you know, I'm a deadhead. So there's a local uh Grateful Dead Band that plays and we raise money for a charitable organization this year. I have chosen uh mobile crisis response for what they do in our community for mental health, which is something that is so near and dear to me. And I love how people who I don't even know will see me and they'll say, hey, when's your when's your birthday party? When's when's your when's your music fest? It is always a day that I look forward to each and every day. Um and that is the joy and the light that I want to spread on on my special birthday. So I will uh put a link in the show for anyone who wants to donate to that mobile crisis response organization that does so much to de-escalate those who are in a mental health crisis and get them the services they need. And this week, as I reflect on another year, another year of renewal, of a refresh, a restart, I want to talk this week on the many opportunities that God gives us to do that, the many opportunities that He wants us to prosper and to succeed. And even though there may be times where it looks like we can't, um that is a time where we are being refined, where we are being um stretched and and sculpted uh and pruned, however you want to say it, um, to be better stewards of his love and his gospel, to create stronger relationships, um mainly with him as well as with each other. So this week it's about renewal, uh refresh, restarts, um, and the many ways that God allows us to do that. I can't end this without playing my bell, though, that Melissa. Isn't that beautiful? Along with my uh orchestra of birds and the the upcoming winds and storms. Again, thank you to all of you who have reached out for my birthday. Um I want you to think about your birthdays, um, how maybe you have changed over the years and how you acknowledge his presence in your life and how you've been allowed restarts and refreshes as we um think about that this week through community conversation and scripture. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.