Crazy? Maybe not

I once wrote a little essay for the "This I Believe" series, which an organization was promoting based on the popular NPR effort. I don't really know why I did it. I just felt compelled to tell a story, so I cobbled something together on the fly and quick sent it off before I had too much time to think about it. Because talking about personal beliefs wasn't my thing then and it felt all awkward and strange.

Later, my alma mater wanted to run with it and I agreed, which is not like me, and I ended up recording myself reading my essay in the same radio station studio where my freshman year roommate blasted alternative rock tunes during her 2 am shift. So weird to close that circle.

Because I recorded my essay more than a year after I wrote it, I had this incredible urge to re-write it and say WAIT. This isn't all I believe. This was a tiny glimpse into my world, where I was a year ago. And that's why I don't always put my opinions out there, in writing, since I am always reworking them, tweaking them based on life experiences, exposure to new stories, and perspective from current relationships.

I say all that to preface that I do have some unchanging beliefs: I do sincerely and for-all-time believe that God moves in strange and crazy ways. And if we only expect the expected, we might be limiting ourselves to half of the experience He has planned for us. We should think bigger.

If I were to rewrite my essay, I would totally say that.

One of the reasons I've come to embrace this belief more sincerely than ever before is my friend Katie. Her lovely little family of 5 will soon become a family of 6 when they adopt their special-needs daughter from China. They don't know much about their daughter yet - what she looks like, what her needs are, how old she is. They do know her name: Hannah. And they also already know many parts of the miracle that is bringing her home. It has been a ginormous leap of faith to get to this stage in the race, and their story is a very fine example of God-being-God: showering big ol' wow-moments amid the unexpected twists.

Katie and Nathan ... and Katie painting an orphanage (of course!)

Katie is writing about this experience HERE and HERE. She's doing this because her master vision is a community of families loving on orphans and changing the world. I love big dreams. If you want some inspiration, follow along, too. Because - and here's another of my solid beliefs - we all have a tug on our heart to do something, whether it's adoption, starting an organization, opening a business, moving across the country. This "tug" might be calling us to do some pretty crazy stuff. If you're like me, you sometimes ignore the tug - not because you want it to go away, but because you don't know where to begin.

There's no begin, I've learned. There's just jump in. Let's all leap together, k?

Incidentally, that essay I wrote was on simplicity, and how basic needs can be enough. And I still believe that it's a huge part of my journey, of where I am going. Even if I am still working through the details.

One of these posts, we will have to explore that a little more ...