Seeing God through other people...

Faith & Life  ·  Personal Reflection

I Want to Ooze

I want to be one of those people that when you see them,
or talk to them, or listen to them —
the Spirit of God just oozes out of them.

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I was praying about some things recently, and in the middle of that prayer, God started revealing a new truth to me about myself.

I struggle with vanity.

Oh, for sure. Case in point:

Exhibit One

I am completely obsessed with losing ten pounds, and have been for approximately ten years. Unfortunately I love food too much, and so every time I lose five pounds, I reward myself by immediately gaining five pounds back. It is an extremely efficient system.

Exhibit Two

I am extremely irritated when people do not notice some big accomplishment I have worked hard for. I suspect most people feel this way, but here is the thing — it is actually a form of vanity. We should want people to see God through our accomplishments, not ourselves.

Exhibit Three

The minute this realization came to me, I started writing this blog post — because I want everyone to be so amazed at how amazing I am that I am honest enough to admit I struggle with vanity. I know. I know. I have some serious issues.

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But for real. I am genuinely, sincerely interested in growing in love with Christ. I am truly exhausted by all the noise and clutter of this world, and I am ready to let go of the stupid stuff.

(I say all that while holding tightly to all my gadgets, accessories, and La La Land.)

I want to be one of those people who really shines with the Holy Spirit.
One of those people that after you speak with them,
you feel lighter and more joyful.
One of those people who does not care what the world thinks —
only what God thinks.

That is the person I want to become.

I am going to have to spend some more time praying about this. I can already tell it is going to take a very long time to make even an inch of progress. But I suppose acknowledging the problem is where it starts.

I will get back to you on this.

Pray for me. I will pray for you. 🙏

A Personal Blog on Faith, Life & the Journey

 Faith & Life

Do You Still Have Dreams?

A conversation with my daughter reminded me that dreaming is not just for the young. It is for the living.

Personal Reflection

I am 48 years old. And I still have dreams for when I grow up.

I know how that sounds. But recently I shared some of those dreams with my 15-year-old daughter, and her reaction confused me. She looked genuinely surprised. Not dismissive, not unkind, just truly caught off guard. As if she had never considered that someone my age would still be sitting around dreaming about what life could look like someday.

And that got me thinking.

For the record, here are some of those dreams: I want to study in Rome, earning a Master's in Theology, living and breathing the Eternal City. I want to travel the world, not just visit it. I want to book one of those year-long cruises that sails everywhere, slowly, with no agenda. I want to step away from my career and try something entirely different. Maybe work in the travel industry, or give VIP tours at a theme park. Something low-stress, full of joy, and completely new. Something that makes people smile.

I am happy where I am right now. Deeply happy. But contentment and dreaming are not opposites. In fact, I think the most contented people are often the biggest dreamers.

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I do not blame my daughter for her reaction. She is fifteen. In her world, adulthood probably looks like something you arrive at, a fixed destination where the dreaming stops and the living-it-out begins. She has not yet learned that the destination keeps moving. That is part of the gift.

But I want her, and all of my kids, to know something important: dreaming is not a young person's game. It is a human thing. A God-given thing. Scripture is full of people who received their biggest callings later in life. Abraham was seventy-five when God told him to pick up and go. Moses was eighty when he stood before the burning bush. Anna the prophetess was well into her eighties when she finally laid eyes on the Messiah she had spent her whole life waiting for.

God does not retire His plans for us at a certain age. So why would we retire ours?

"Life with God is a great adventure."

Pope St. John Paul II

That phrase has lived in my heart for years. A great adventure. Not a safe, predictable march from point A to point B, but an adventure full of surprises, plot twists, and chapters you never saw coming. And the beautiful thing about adventures is that they do not end just because you have already lived through some good ones.

I think of Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." That was spoken to a people in exile. People who thought their best days were behind them. God's response? I am not done with you yet.

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Here is what I want to teach my children: Stay curious. Stay hungry. Keep dreaming and dream big.

Not because dreaming guarantees you get everything you want. Not because life owes you a Roman adventure or a world cruise. But because the posture of dreaming, the openness, the hope, the willingness to imagine something beyond what you can currently see, is itself an act of faith. It is saying to God: I trust that there is more. I trust that You are not finished. I trust that this life is worth showing up for, all the way to the end.

My daughter surprised me with her reaction. But honestly? I am glad she did. Because now we are having a better conversation. Now she knows her mother still has big, wild, beautiful dreams. And maybe, just maybe, that gives her permission to hold onto hers too, for the rest of her life, no matter how old she gets.

Life is an adventure. Say yes to it.

What are YOUR dreams, the ones you have tucked away for someday? I would love to hear them. And if you have stopped dreaming, maybe today is the day to start again. Pray for me! I will pray for you. 🙏