It was one of the first truly warm days of the year – fitting considering it was Easter. We sat on deck with some people who had just become friends, talking about everything and nothing at the same time.
I was sitting next to a girl, about 80% sure that I knew her name, when all of a sudden she started talking about journalism… and Jesus – two of my favorite topics.
She revealed to me that her dream was to be a journalist, and that she lived it for a while – working at several radio stations before finally quitting.
“It was just too hard… I was trying to love the Lord on my own. I needed people.”
I wasn’t expecting the conversation to go there. I was expecting the usual, ‘getting to know you’ conversation. And in a group where Christians were the minority, I didn’t expect the conversation to go there.
But it did.
She told me that all she wants to do is travel the world – that she’s been on a few domestic mission trips, but that she’s always wanted to do more.
“I want to leave it all behind – I know that I was made for something bigger.”
She paused for a moment, allowing me just enough time to reveal a key detail about myself.
Her relief and admiration was palpable. She kept congratulating me on living a fantastic life, amazed that I was doing what I’d always dreamed of doing, surrounded by a group of people with the same heart. It was like she didn’t know what else to do.
I thought she was going to shake my hand.
As she left, she assured me over her shoulder that she was going to check out the World Race. She walked out still shaking her head – as if amazed that her greatest dreams were actually attainable.
Photo credit: http://pinterest.com/pin/13862711323644850/
Something shifted in me that day, on that warm Easter afternoon. Away from Gainesville and our community, away from Christians and storytellers and people who have traveled the world, I got some perspective.
I had been so focused on the trees – things to get done, emails to send, calls to make, ideas to churn – that I had forgotten about the beauty of the forest.
To-do lists aside, I’m living my dream come true. I wake up every day and go to a job that I couldn’t have dreamed up if I tried.
If, sitting in my freshman journalism classes in college, I had been able to see myself today, I would have given myself a high five and then bought myself a drink. This really is everything I ever wanted to do and more. And sometimes I forget.
I forget that it’s not normal to work for an organization that cares about your dreams. I forget that it’s not normal to pray and prophecy over your co-workers. I forget that it’s not normal to ask someone where they got something and have them be able to tell you the exact market in Phuket – and have you know exactly what they’re talking about. I forget that it’s not normal to be 24 years old and be living your dream.
I think that a key skill of any good leader is the ability to maintain perspective. I think that our ability to step away and see the big picture is what enables us to move from one place to the next – bringing others along with us.
But we can’t see where we’re going until we know where we’ve been. And I hope that those moments of reflection are bursting at the seams with gratitude for what the Lord has done. It’s that perspective – that trust in him and gratitude for what he’s done, that enables us to move forward boldly.
He’s done so much, we have so much to be grateful for, and so we have no reason to look forward with anything but joy and anticipation for what other tricks he has up his sleeve.
