The Rich Life

My husband and I took the jump into, as they call it here in Switzerland, "WG living" which essentially means community living. We are currently living in an apartment with his brother, sister-in-law, and 5 day-old new born. Before we made this move, I had my moments of thinking, "What the heck are we doing, who thinks it's a good idea to move into an apartment with a new born, that is not your own!"As time grew closer to our move, I began to realize that this opportunity is so perfect for us. The apartment is just right, with more than enough space and privacy, as well as practically sound proof walls which has filled our nights with a deep, sound sleep.

With a working from home status, I have the flexibility to help my sister-in-law out with cooking, cleaning etc. during this hectic time as a new mama , but that does not even compare to the ways she's been able to help me. She is beyond disciplined with speaking German with me and encouraging me to do. They are always willing to help me with the translating work I am doing.  If it's snowing, raining, or just unbearably cold, they lend me the car to go grocery shopping, meet with friends, or make it to my appointments on time. It's been a blessing for me to be able to help them and in return receive there gracious help. 

Now, of course we have had our challenges of learning how to live with one another, respect what is important to each other, and make small changes from our previous way of living so that we could somehow make this "WG" work. But all in all, it is just simply a rich life. To share life on a daily basis with those around you, have a place where there are often people just hanging out or stopping by for a coffee or a meal, and a place where people are accepted exactly how they are. 

It's a gift, really. It's what life is about, it's not meant to be kept to yourself, but rather shared with your neighbors, family and friends. Everyday gives us a reason to celebrate and have gratitude towards those around you. Regardless how big or small the reason is, it's purely important to find one. 

Boundless Bliss

This past week I received a text from my Dad, explaining how he had a dream that I was not happy. Because this dream was so strong and being the amazing dad that he is, he decided to follow up with me. I was so touched with this text, really. But than I began to ponder, am I truly happy, what is happiness in general and why do I feel like my generation chases after such a fleeting feeling?

I realized that I could not honestly answer this question. A cup of coffee or glass of wine makes me

happy. When I sit down and write with a candle lit in my office happiness comes. If I spend time with my husband, family and friends, I become happy. But these temporary things are quickly finished. They do not last. So why is our world raising up a generation, who strives after these temporary pleasures? Why do we not strive after something that is everlasting?

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

Now we often use the words joy and happiness interchangeably.  But I believe there is a difference. According to Merriam Dictionary, happiness is a state of being happy (temporary) and joy is a source or cause of great happiness.  Therefore, if a person does not have joy, he or she cannot be truly happy since joy is the source of happiness. If the Bible says that in God's presence we experience the fullness of joy, than can we truly be happy without God?

And that's where I began to explain to my papa. I am not running after happiness, if happiness comes that is a byproduct of my joy which ultimately comes from the presence of God. Life is often, just simply hard, but the fruit of these hard times is joy. I believe, the longer we follow Jesus the quicker we are to find joy through the difficult times. We strive or put our hope in something that is far beyond us. Joy is alive in my heart, but it is not based upon my worldly circumstances, which is great because if it was than as soon as I lost my job, family, health, culture my joy would be gone with it.

God is good. He is always good. 

Be Loved

As I woke up this morning, made my coffee and began to think and pray about what I should write about on this special day honoring love, I began to think of an area where I seem to struggle the most in. Being loved.

Sounds easy right? I mean you don’t really need to do anything; you just need to simply be. This weakness of mine has been magnified through my marriage. Life has given me moments where I could completely doubt that there is existing love for me in this world from my husband, friends, family, and most importantly God. Now how can that be?

It is not the fact that the love isn’t there, by any means. I have some of the most loving and intentional people around me, not to mention a God, who is love. I believe it is the fact, that I do not allow the time to soak in the love around me.

Yesterday, I had this realization and decided to start making a change to soak in love; to start to appreciate the little moments of pure joy through out the day and make an effort to be loved.

I was taken back by the amount of little moments, where I was overwhelmed with joy, peace, and most importantly love. From sitting in silence and simply being with my husband, to running into my Swiss family at the grocery store and being greeted as if I was a celebrity by my father-in-law, to hearing about an amazing trip my aunt and uncle-in-law had to Guinea, and finally to hosting a welcome party for our neighbors and being so surprised by the amount of people that showed up and as well the relationships that are beginning to develop in our new neighborhood.

Now each of these examples, are nothing extraordinary, but they are simple moments of love given by God. Each day He intervenes in our lives in such powerful and simple ways, but if we do not take the time to be and soak in lives little moments, we can so easily pass up the opportunity of being loved.

Delighted by Joy

On Saturday, my sister-in-laws and I hosted a Baby Shower for my pregnant sister-in-law. We hosted about 20 women at our new apartment. They day went fabulously. It was beautiful weather, the food and drinks were delightful, and it is safe to say that everyone had a pleasant time. It was nice to catch up with friends, but as well meet some new ones in between the duties of hosting.

When I woke up on the day of the Baby Shower, it wasn’t difficult to put my own needs aside and focus on the goal of the day, to put together this party for the guests and of course my sister-in-law. Although I was busy from 6:30 am till 8:30 pm, it was amazing how much joy I had through it all. Towards the end of the day, I asked myself, how could I have so much joy and peace during such a frantic day, where I barely had 10 minutes for me?

The answer lies in two places: expectations and mission. When we wake up with the idea, today is a day to serve others rather than myself. How does the outcome of our day differ? I’ve come to learn, that when I say I am going to serve others, often, I, in tern, end up having a day full of delightful little surprises from those around me.

When we do not expect anything in return, we give no room for disappointment. Joy is the foundation of our day.

When we live with a purpose and a mission during the day, we will enter into a deep peace. Everyday can have a purpose, not only when we host a party, give a presentation, help another person out, etc. I believe, when we follow Jesus each day, our purpose on this earth is to simply be love. However that may look in our lives—through the big and small things.

Mission is essential to a healthy organism and organization, when we lose sight of our mission, we lose sight of our purpose. Without a purpose, we become more susceptible to lose sight of hope and without hope, well, we are hopeless.

So I encourage you all to reflect on what your mission is today? Where are areas in our lives where unwise expectations may lie? How can we begin to start living more purposefully in our day to day lives?

Small is Big

I just returned back to Switzerland, from an amazing week in America. I had the joy of meeting my little godson—what a cutie! Time was spent with family and friends and just soaking in the American spirit, which I miss/appreciate so much. I met with one of my college roommates at the most adorable coffee shop in River North one evening. We simply caught up on life, jobs, family, friends so on and so forth. It was delightful.

As our evening was drawing towards an end, we started to talk about what we would like to do, where we would like to be, our dream jobs, and what the future may hold. We both admitted we are not in our ideal career field at the moment, but then questioned what does that even matter?

Of course, we do not want to wake up each day and go to a 9 to 5 that we hate, but we also do not want to get so consumed by our career that we forget to live a life outside of it. My girlfriend went on to explain about some of the most influential people in her life. It did not come as a surprise to me that she said her grandparents. Her grandmother was a secretary and grandfather, an electrician. Both didn’t do anything crazy with their careers or save anyone’s life, but they made a difference each and everyday and touched 100s of lives just by simply being.

Life is so much more than a career. Success is not measured by a paycheck or a job title. Success is measured by, well that differs depending on how you see it. Those who I view as successful in my life, are those who know what their God given talent in life is and has multiplied it for the sake of humanity. Those who have an impact on the community where they live and are making a positive change in this world, even if that change is bringing a smile to his or her neighbor’s face or being a vessel of love in the office. That is success in my eyes. Small is big.

Those Swiss Alps...

After a week spent in the mountains, I couldn't help but feel like an ant. Really, I was taking a ski lift with my girlfriend and we looked down at the 100s of snowboarders and skiers, first we were frightened by the greatness of this mountain and the lack of skills that we possessed to get ourselves down on two slates of wood and secondly, we realized how tiny we truly are, we (humans) looked like little specks on the mountain! It was such a powerful moment, we were in one of the prettiest places on this earth and literally shaking in our boots.

It is hard not to feel the power of God in moments like this. His perspective is different from ours and places like Valais, CH, really puts life in perspective. Our mountains in life are never as big as we make them and we are as well not as big as we seem to be. We have a tendency to allow our perspectives to overrule the truth of what it is. We forget that we have a Father, who not only created these mountains, but additionally has an intimate love for us.

Which leads me to my final point, I looked down on each little person on the slopes and felt how much God loves each one of those individuals, regardless of age, nationality, history, future. His love is there for them without boarders.

I found myself later that evening praying a prayer to God, saying, "Lord, your creation is beautiful, thank you for showing me your greatness today. But that beauty I saw today, does not compare to the joy I receive from being in your presence." It's true, the beautiful places, the great friends, amazing family, and simple joys in life are great, but they do not compare of the love God has for us!

He Died So That We May Live

Why did my life change? Why am I different than I was 4 years ago? Many people who know me well, can see this. I’m sure I have hurt, encouraged, and maybe even helped many people through this change. Some think I’m crazy, some think religious, some think I’m a better person. But why? Why would I go through this? A girl who does not like to upset the people around her. Why would she choose a path that would hurt some of the people most dear to her heart, for such a cause?

Jesus. He is the answer. I am sure many of you reading this, know or have heard of Jesus. You’ve heard the gospel stories, you heard how He died for our sins, and you heard that when we believe in Him we may enter into eternal life. But do you truly understand the meaning of this?

I know I didn’t until about two years ago. I had grown up in a church going, before meal praying family. I had gone from Catholic school to Catholic school and took a countless amount of religious classes. But I never fully understood it, until the grace of God came upon me. He died so that we may live.

He died so that we may live. This my friends has two meanings. The first meaning relates to life after death. We have two options when we die, we will go to heaven or hell. Sounds blunt right? It’s the truth and I love you all so much, I want you to hear the truth. It’s a burning fire on my heart that y’all can enter into eternal life in heaven, not the later option. It is my responsibility, to let you in on the most beautiful secret of life.

So right now if any of you reading this do not understand what Jesus did for us, I ask that you pray to God and ask Him to reveal to you the truth of the Gospel stories. I’m serious, it will be the best decision that you’ve ever made. For when we do not believe in Jesus, we have no chance of eternal life after this world passes away.

Why is this? Why should we believe in Jesus if we have a Father that loves us so much? Because God loved us so much, he gave us freewill. Freewill means, we have to ability to make our own decisions and choose our own paths and take our own responsibility for our lives. He doesn’t force us to love Him or believe that He exists, what kind of love is that when you’re forced into something? It is not genuine, meaningful, or by any means natural. Therefore, in God’s great wisdom, He has given us the ability to chose a life full of Him or a life empty of anything He has to offer us.

Which leads me to the second meaning of what it means to live after His death. Once we believe and understand the truth of the Gospel, it is then that we begin to live in freedom and love. We are free, only through the grace of God. We are no longer bond to worldly means, such as family, friends, traveling, money, alcohol, drugs, material things, events, etc. to bring us happiness. We can go a week with only eating soup and drinking tea and have all the joy in the world, because the source of our happiness and joy does not come from this world. It comes from above. We are no longer bond to the ways of this world, of following the main stream, but rather we are called to step out of these complacent roles and be excellent, extraordinary and unique. We are also called to not react as the world would react.

I had the opportunity the other morning to have breakfast with my husband’s Aunt. Her husband is currently in rehab, due to a 3 ½ inch tumor that the doctors had to remove from his brain. The medical team was able to remove about 60% of the tumor, but the rest will have to come out with radiation and chemo. Now this couple (the aunt and uncle) gave their lives to the people in Guinea, Africa for about 20 years working as a nurse and doctor and serving in the Church as missionaries. She looked at me and said, “Jeanna so many people have said to us, ‘how could God do such a thing to people like you, who have served your whole life the people around you’.” She replied to them saying, “God never promised us a life without sickness or death, we are thankful that we’ve lived 50 years without any sickness.”

She is not responding as the world would respond, because she has the joy of the Spirit. She knows that God will take care of her husband and that God’s wisdom is beyond ours. She has a thankful heart. She is a beautiful testimony for me, of how powerful the Spirit of God is to those who choose to love and follow Him. It gives us so much strength and power in our times of need here on earth. It allows us to rejoice always and rest in His peace.

God is so good y’all, seriously. I want nothing more than for more of my family and friends to develop an intimate relationship with Him. He will turn your world upside down.