Sometimes it just isn’t enough

I love that I can write e-mails, blog, skype with friends and family half-way across the world and see their faces on webcams. But sometimes it just isn’t enough. Sometimes I just want to give that person a hug, have a face-to-face conversation, watch their face as we burst into uncontrollable laughter from an inside joke, eat a meal together, or simply give their cute pregnant belly a rub.

I just found out that one of my good friends from our church back in MN is pregnant. This is a lovely lady that I spent hours with at the softball diamond as we watched our husbands play on the church softball league, talked to about fun things, challenging things and difficult things, ate dinner with, went to DQ a few too many times with, played games with, cried with, snuggled up with, and just goofed around with. She is a confidant, a sister in Christ, an encourager, a prayer warrior, a wife, and a soon-to-be mother… and I miss her.

It makes me sad to know that I’m missing out on this season of her life—her first pregnancy and all her ridiculous cravings, baby showers, physical changes, and emotions— because I’m here and she’s there. And even though technology makes it easier to be half way around the world… sometimes it just isn’t enough when you simply want to be there.

When I'm missing some things and people from home, it's hard to focus on/remember why I'm here. It's even hard to remember how much I really don't like MN winters! But I know that God has called us to this ministry in Thailand and I will consider that pure joy. It's always hard when you have to sacrifice something though: your church, your friends, your family... but it's hard to focus on my sacrifice when I know that God's sacrifice was much greater. Perspective.

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him… " Philippians 3:8-9

I could easily change this verse to say, "what is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Chirst Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that [my students/Thailand] may gain Christ and be found in him..." And that's the ministry that God has called us to... whether technology is enough or not.