I recently had a friend ask me what my dreams are, meaning what are the deepest desires of my heart. It was a strange question, in that I have not been asked about my ‘dreams’ specifically since I was about 10 years old. It got me thinking about dreams and goals and pursing those deepest desires, and then how beautiful it looks when you witness someone who is doing just that. They are, in short, free, and it is wonderfully visible in their lives.
When she asked me about my dreams it came after a conversation about our career paths and how I had been wrestling with whether or not I had chosen the right one. Now, my favorite part about this friend is how much she cares about my heart and brings out that child-like faith in me. So she didn’t ask me the normal question of, “Well, what would you do if you didn’t do what your whole adult life has been leading towards?”
Instead, she asked me, “Well, then what are your dreams?”
I told her I had been so stuck on one idea for so long that I couldn’t even think outside of the box and come up with one dream for myself. She drove me to a coffee shop after work that evening, sat me down, and told me to get out my journal and dream.
My list ranged from physically walking where Jesus walked to being an artist (a dream continued from childhood) to owning my own apple orchard. Some were more realistic than others, but it didn’t matter, I was letting my heart and mind go anywhere it wanted for the first time in a while and it was incredibly freeing. I mean who doesn’t want to realize that one of their deepest desires is to work on or own an apple orchard? I didn’t see that one coming, but hey, that’s what happens when you dream. You never know what is going to come up that you hadn’t considered before, but now know how giddy it makes you to think about. I dare you to sit down and just dream.
Rereading the list I made that night, two of my dreams stood out the most to me.
1) Never lack in joy to give.
2) Love who I become.
I realized my path is already known by my Creator but very unknown to me. So much of my identity has been caught up in how my future career will define me. I have often thought of how I need to bulldoze my way to get there and be successful, that I pass over the risky ‘road less traveled’ ways to get there and miss out on the joy of the journey.
With that, I dream of reaching a point where I will love who I become no matter what I am doing, because I am overflowing with joy doing it. So I decided, for the time being, to dive headfirst in a completely different direction than what my life was originally headed towards. A direction that will be filled with adventure and Jesus and love and joy, thus, enter in the World Race.
I will be going to
Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
11 months, 11 countries, 11 new opportunities to serve. I am not fully aware of the specifics yet but I will be keeping this blog as an update for all who want to follow me along in my excursions. I can’t promise it will be eloquent, but I sure hope it will be encouraging, as well as entertaining. Whether it is through financial support or prayer support (I can give you endless reasons for both), I eagerly invite you to come on board my team and be behind me on this journey.
It might sound crazy, insane even, to live out of a backpack for a year, have a sleeping bag as a bed, and go on what is sure to be the hardest mental, physical, and spiritual trip of my life, but I have no fear. For almost a year I will be a missionary, I will get to serve and love people well and make an impact in the nations as my job. Talk about a dream.
