my Christmas wish for you

If I could have one Christmas wish this year, if I could sit with anyone and look deeply in their longing eyes, I'd wish for them to be uncomfortable. Yes, to live uncomfortably.

You may think that's a lousy wish and you most certainly will turn down my next invite for a cup of coffee. But, if you're thinking this, then I mean it most for you.

Okay, obviously I need to explain myself...

Over the last number of years it's been in my greatest discomfort where I've received my most treasured riches. It's when I deliberately made choices to be uncomfortable-- to be a single mom, to move to one of the poorest countries in the world, to give up a respectable job, to choose to face death where there is no support in the process-- It's through all of these choices where I've gained the most.

I wish it weren't so my friends, what we've been taught since we were wee, I wish I weren't trying to dispel a lie but the fact of the matter is, we weren't meant to be comfortable. What you may think is discontentment, or the desire for more, what keeps you striving, it won't be eliminated with more. Nope, the problem, I believe, is that you're too comfortable.  It's not how we were meant to be. As I observe a much more "comfortable" life (and live one myself) my heartaches and my longings and discontentment resurfaces. It just doesn't feel right, friends, it's because it was never meant to be like this. You aren't meant to have it all together, not all picture perfect, not all in your own strength.

Dear friends, I'm sorry you've been lied to. The truth is...

"A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, but to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet." Proverbs 27:7

So whether you make decisions, or life decides for you, may you taste and see (and even choose) the sweetness. I say with confidence, through the discomfort, through the times when you "want out" you WILL experience, you WILL hear from, you WILL RECEIVE all and more than you ever NEED, from HIM-- the giver of every good and perfect gift.

So ultimately, it's this, my Christmas wish is for you to be so uncomfortable that you, through knowing Him more, can live in the fullness of His blessings! To learn that EVERY BITTER THING IS SWEET. It's not easy, but it's sweet.  It's good and it's learned.

It's because I love you and want you too to be filled with His best blessings. That is my wish for you this Christmas! Merry Christmas!

a christmas gathering

If you'll be in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area on Wednesday, December 16th, and would like to join us for a holiday gathering to hear more about our work in Mozambique, please email me for details!
There will be door prizes too! And treats!  We'd love to see you!

happy thanksgiving

Last Sunday, when Chad was sharing at a church, he shared about a patient that we've had the opportunity to watch change. As he spoke, as he so eloquently does, I had a moment, a moment when I remembered...

...I don't know, back 10, 15, 25 years?....

I imagined myself sitting in church and hearing a missionary speak, seeing pictures of what seems like miraculous life transformations...

And then, as if I had lost track of the present, I "re-entered" and realized, "Dara, that's your life! You are doing that now! You saw that! You know that story!"

And, not as if I "have arrived" but I realized just then

how thankful 

I am. The life that I used to just dream about is mine. I feel so unworthy of it. Tears of thankfulness rolled down my face. I couldn't believe that those pictures were ours, that that is our life.

Since being in America I feel a sadness, an emptiness. I don't feel like I've "connected" deeply with many people I don't know why that is or what that means but it's left me wondering. I wonder how many people around me, who appear to have a "beautiful life", have really had the privileged of having that realization of gratitude, that the life they dreamed of, is theirs? I hope it's more than I think. Maybe I just haven't gotten to hear their story yet.

--As we reflected over Thanksgiving, I was filled with gratitude for oh, so many things! Primarily I'm grateful I decided to take the hard road, to go the less traveled route where many said, "wait!" Had I listened to the world's advise, would I have arrived, here, in my dream?

I'm thankful beyond these simple words!

Amen!