I’m a country girl at heart. Mountains, wooded trails, horses, wildflowers, soaking up the sunshine and playing in the snow all make me sigh with joy. Beautiful North Idaho is my homeland.
The massive Twin Cities of Minnesota was my collegeland. That was a drastic change, but it was there I grew my wings. Became a teacher. Found my “calling.”
That calling landed my husband and me in Alaska. No stores, airplane access only, fishing village Alaska. Yep. It was a one-eighty back into the countryside. But this time it was unfamiliar and unforgiving. A fearsome beauty in both its environment and its people. Our first missionland.
And now? Verdant, sweat inducing, alive with lizards Thailand. Tundra to tropics — another one-eighty. We moved here in 2014 with a baby on the hip and a preschooler in the hand.
No one has ever accused us of leading a boring life. But crazy? Perhaps a time or two.
And at times, I have felt crazy, and I’ve wondered if God was crazy for leading us on this wild adventure.
I’ve spent too many days… months… years really, spinning in circles, dizzying myself looking from one circumstance to another. I’ve hoped that changing continents would fix our dysfunction. I’ve done all the right Christiany things, and still come away dry. I’ve answered the call to serve and surrendered my comfort again and again, always secretly asking, “What more do you want from me, Lord?”
His reply has changed everything:
Be still and know that I am God.
Psalm 46:10
So finally, I am ceasing my spinning and my striving, and I am learning to just be with the great I AM.
Who am I? I’m a wife, mother, missionary, writer, chocolate-lover, planner, teacher, wanna-be musician, friend … yes. All these. And yet I know now that the only role and calling that truly defines me is this:
I am passionately loved by the most powerful God.
Glimpses of my life and musings on Instagram …
