Dawson Family Update 2025
Bonjour ,
Dear friend, I hope are well. I hope that you are experiencing the transcendent peace of God in the midst of things that are beyond your ability to control or comprehend. This year has been one of the most challenging and complex seasons of my life, and I’m daily asking God to give me the heart of a child. I’m asking for that for you as well. How else can we experience peace?
“Holy Spirit, give me a love for what Father loves and a hatred for what Father hates. Please re-align my priorities.”
This simple prayer changed my life dramatically when I was 18. At 42, in the toughest parts of this year, it’s a prayer that I have needed to go back to. The emphasis is not intellectual. It’s not a request for information. Being re-aligned to Father’s priorities might not help me understand everything I’m going through. Nor is not likely to help me win any arguments or be re-assured that I’m on the right side of the fence in whatever culture war is raging around me. It’s a request that by a miracle of the Spirit of God, I’d experience a shift of priority and motivation on the inside of me. It’s a shift away from the ability to know and control, and towards the ability to love and release. A miracle for the human heart, indeed.
Luke 17:20-21 Jesus responding to the Pharisees in (City?)
“The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, 'Look, here it is! ' or 'There! ' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
I wonder what you might be going through in this season that defies a simple, black and white explanation, or a clear and simple response?
Maybe there’s someone in your life that you care for deeply, but you also fear that the relationship is killing you. Do you need the courage to leave, or the courage to stay? Maybe you’ve recently experienced a fulfilled dream, but the ache of insignificance hasn’t gone away. Why does God feel so distant? Perhaps you’ve just passed through something that by all accounts should have driven you into insanity, depression, or bankruptcy but by the grace of God somehow you feel lighter, freer, even richer than before. How the heck do you explain that?
As I write this, I’m sitting in a Starbucks, in Gare de Lyon train station in Paris. I’m in the world's cuisine capital, drinking the worst cup of coffee I’ve had in months. I’m in La Ville de L’amour, the City of Love, where a city-wide protest is building and is likely to turn violent by this afternoon.
I can’t really make sense of these things, or just about anything if I’m honest, but my heart is filled with anticipation as I imagine the bullet train from Lausanne, Switzerland that is bringing my darling Keana to me. She’ll be here in 2 hours, and I just cannot wait to see her. That much I know for sure.
Another thing I’ve discovered over the years is that in spite of how frail and self-centred all of us humans tend to be, our friends around the world really do care for us deeply and genuinely. Sometimes it feels like God picked all of the best people on the planet and destined them to be our friends. It’s absurd I know, but truth doesn’t always follow neat lines of rationale. As we pass through incredibly difficult times, when feelings of inadequacy and disappointment become overwhelming, it’s the love, embrace, and truth-telling of the friends Jesus has given us that carries us through. Praise God for friendships.
