Wrecked

There are moments in life, brief moments - when you feel like you're connected to something bigger than your little comfortable piece of the world. I had one of those moments on Friday, and I'm still not sure I can put into words what the experience was like. I have a feeling that the other 180,000 people who experienced the same moment at the Global Leadership Summit are also having the same difficulty.

As the youngest daughter of an affluent Egyptian family in Cairo's Coptic community, Maggie Gobran was deeply changed the first time she saw her city's burgeoning slums. Her answer has been Stephen's Children, a ministry she founded 12 years ago to help the estimated 500,000 families who survive by living in the ancient city's five sprawling garbage dumps.

Before Mama Maggie (as she is known to those she serves) spoke to the group of leaders assembled at Willow Creek and at satellite host sites around the world, a video began displaying images of extreme poverty these families (half a million!) face every day. The Copts use the garbage to survive, both by selling what useful scraps they can find, and eating what remains of someone else's discarded, often rotten food. The images were disturbing, but they did nothing to prepare me for what happened when the video stopped.

As the lights came up on the platform, there she was - this little slip of a woman, dressed from head to toe in white. She was hunched over the simple wooden podium, which was only a little smaller than she was and she gripped the top of it as she stood. As the audience welcomed her with applause, she hunched lower, and lower. With each inch that she bowed, the audience applause grew until it was absolutely thunderous. What was it about that moment that still makes me weep, even today - two days later?

Quiet, unassuming and certainly unexpected - this woman is a picture of the Jesus Christ that I serve. She carries with her the quiet voice that speaks hope to thousands and delicate hands that can bring healing to a forgotten child's heart. For 30 minutes, her soft-spoken voice held 180,000 leaders from around the globe completely riveted to their seats. No one moved, or dared breathe, in case we might miss one word. The Spirit of the Living God was thick in the air and the only sounds were from muffled sobs and sniffs as the full weight of Mama Maggie's words gripped our hearts. Here's a powerful sample that still doesn't do justice to her whole message:

"The truth is that any of us could have been born poor. We don’t choose where to be born. But we do choose either to be sinners or saints…to be nobody or be heroes. If you want to be a hero, do what God wants you to do."

It was a moment I don't ever want to forget.

Dawn

If you Google Maggie Groban, you will find hundreds of bloggers trying to make sense of that moment, like I am today.  

It's a new day, a new blog!

Thunder is rolling outside and a beautiful August monsoon is on its way to my house.  The perfect Sunday afternoon spent with my hubby and thanking God for all the blessings he's lavished on us.  The week is full of new possibilities and challenges...are you ready for it?

Me neither.  :-)

Hey, if you used to follow my other blog - and you know who you are - make sure and switch over to this one.  I wanted to expand the topics more, so I created "radio daisies".  Hope you enjoy.

I like how he thinks...

Try something different when it comes to “rewarding” yourself for all your hard work with your diet and exercise. You don’t always have to use food as a reward. It could be giving yourself your own makeover by shopping for a new outfit, a haircut, or a mani/pedi.

                                       - Bob Harper

Slowly, Slowing, Slowest

This is such a slow process. Probably because I'm an avid Biggest Loser watcher (hate Hannah's hair, want her or Olivia to win) and amazed weekly at the rapid success each contestant has. Then I am quick to remind myself that they don't go to work for eight or nine hours a day - their weight loss is their full time job. So no wonder!

It's been over a month since my last blog and a lot has happened, including a dislocated rib (did you know we had "floating" ribs? me neither.) that kept me away from the gym and in a fair amount of pain for a couple of weeks. As of last week, I'm back on track and in much less pain. Still, I look back over the calendar and see that in terms of progress - three weeks have been absolutely lost. For a while, I really let that fact get to me and play with my emotions. Then I realized that life is full of  setbacks that aren't the result of laziness or failure, but rather the evidence of living a real life. That energizes me, because I want my life to be full, rich and real.

So here we are at the start of a new week. Today I'm preparing menus for the week, working out, cleaning a little bit, waiting for the bug guy to come and kill our bugs and being just generally psyched for a new opportunity to make progress on my goals. AND, I'm planning an extreme makeover of my own...short, sassy hair and all...happening later this month. Stay tuned.