So the other day at lunch, I was sitting with Lynda (she’s pretty great. You should meet her) and we had just finished eating. I was hard core craving an apple. I can’t tell you the last time I had an actual apple. It was probably before the race started, so 6 months ago. (um What?! How has it been 6 months already) I mentioned in passing my desire for an apple to Lynda. We sometimes mention things we miss and today it happened to be an apple. After lunch we headed back out to our ministry site. My ministry this week was “gardening”. I use that term loose because it really means tilling the land with axes and a hoe and realizing how hard farming is. This particular afternoon we were heading to the reforestation site. This is a plot of land where HOPEthiopia is planting trees and growing vegetation. There were six of us girls that headed to this magical forest area. I was waiting for tinkerbell to pop out at any moment. It was one of the most beautiful sites I’ve seen. Just to give you a visual: you walk in through rows of tall pine trees, there is a mountain/hill on your right past the trees, and a river which flows over rocks in between the two. It’s magical. Anyways, we sat down and started to stuff dirt into these plastic tubes which I think are used for seeds, not really sure though. As we are sitting there, one of the workers, no joke, comes over and hands one of the girls an apple. Just one. Knowing the girl he gave it to, I didn’t think she would actually ate it. So of course, me craving an apple, asked her if she was going to eat it. And low and behold she said no, do you want it? YES! Let me tell you, that was the best apple I think I have eaten in my life. It was perfectly crisp and perfectly sweet. God had given me an apple. I hadn’t even asked him for one. I just simply said that I missed eating my daily apple. Flash forward to the next day. I was siting on our couch (yes we have a couch, and yes we are spoiled this month) and I was thinking that I missed sitting on the couch with my dad and him rubbing my feet. Call us weird but that actually does happen at home. Oh! And side note. My heels on this race are horrible. They have cracked like they never have before and it grosses/concerns everyone that sees them. Back to the story. One of my precious squad mates goes and gets her ped egg for me and then asks if she can do something to them once I am finished. So of course I said yes. They need some serious help and I was desperate. Again, no joke, once I am finished she takes my feet and rubs them with magic lotion that has basically healed me poor heels. But the fact that earlier that day I had wanted that foot rub and here it is. WHAT?! This was exactly like the apple story. So I started to reflect over these events and what was it that I needed to learn. Here is what I think God is trying to teach me. He looked at me and said “you didn’t even ask me for these things but here I am providing for you. I desire to see you have joy in the gifts that I have given you. Now think how much I desire to bless you with things that you actually ask me for, big things! I provided these two little gifts and I am a God that can do incredibly big things as well. Go for it! Dare to dream! Ask me!” So here I sit reflecting on the dreams that I have. Including but not limited to: living in one place longer than four years, living abroad for a period of time, getting married, having lots of kids, having a house where lots of people come and hang out including teens who need stability and a family, run all the Disney marathons (not at once), have my kids go to international school so they can speak many languages and I’m sure lots more that I can’t think of right now. So I want to challenge you with the same lesson I am learning. Dare to dream! Go for it. What is it that you are scared to ask or just think it’s silly to ask God for. He desires to see joy in his children. He is a loving father that will walk beside you as you take the steps in order to fulfill these God sized dreams. Just try it and see what happens. Who knows, you might end up with an apple and a foot rub.
