Our
awesome contacts here in Albania took us on a day trip to a nearby “village”
called Pogradec — a beautiful lake town near the boarder of Macedonia. We enjoyed a relaxing stroll through a park, centered
around smaller ponds graced with swans.
We stopped for lunch at a Pizzeria, and in an effort to get to know each
other better went around the table asking random questions. I asked, “When you were young, what did you
want to be when you grew up?”
For
myself, I don’t really recall having specific career dreams other than maybe
swimming with Shamu at Sea World. I
mostly remember dreaming about being grown up and having everything I
associated with being happy; a good job that allowed me time with my family, a
successful husband, a house with a yard, two kids (because I grew up with two
kids), two SUV’s, taking family vacations, entertaining at home with Crate
& Barrel white serving platters and wine from my wine club, a nice gym
membership, and of course a healthy 401k.
This
is all I knew growing up in an upper-middle class family; a family I thought
was near perfect. My mother and father
were happily married high school sweethearts.
My brother and I were smart, popular, involved in after school
activities and stayed out of trouble. We
truly could have been the poster family for the American Dream.
Then
all my dreams and life expectations were flipped upside down.
My
dad’s passing was a MAJOR turning point for me.
It took me awhile to accept my life no longer looked like what I always
assumed it would. I learned my
expectation of this “perfect” life was limiting God. I don’t believe it is bad to desire a “nice”
life with “nice” things, but God asked me to keep an open mind about His plan,
likely something better and beyond my wildest dreams. So I’ve slowly
surrendered my plans in exchange for His, and I’m discovering God’s path for my
life isn’t fitting into the box I’ve been living in for 30 years. This realization brought me to the World Race,
and to a place where I am okay with making counter-cultural, perhaps radical
decisions like quitting my amazing job and putting my “life on hold” at 34 to
dedicate a year to knowing and serving God.
could be next after the race? Perhaps
falling in love and living in another country?? Recent advances from a new
friend in Bolivia have made these scary thoughts a possibility. Am I willing to give up a life close to
family and friends, the ability to navigate my surroundings, my favorite cultural
traditions like carving pumpkins, my native language, etc. to follow God’s
leading? I don’t know where God will
take me 8 months from now, but I know I can’t let fear of the unknown, the
uncomfortable, the radical, the unexpected, keep me from being used to
accomplish God’s will and from experiencing God’s full blessing upon my
life.
you feel God nudging you in an unexpected, uncomfortable and maybe scary
direction? If so I encourage you to take
baby steps of faith in that direction and I promise you won’t regret it!!
Genesis
12:1-3 The
LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s
household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
