Dawson Family Update 2025
Dear friend, I hope you are well. I hope that you are experiencing the miracle of the 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, realign 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 return 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 it likely to help me win any arguments or be re-assured that I’m on the right side of the fence in whatever arguments are raging in the culture 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. 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 on his way to Jerusalem: “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. What does a loving response to this situation actually look like? That is often an incredibly difficult question to wrestle with.
Maybe there’s someone in your life that you care for deeply, but you also fear that the relationship is choking the life out of you. Do you need the courage to draw boundaries for yourself, or the courage to lean in? Maybe you’ve recently experienced a fulfilled dream, but the ache of insignificance hasn’t gone away and you’re asking, why does God still 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, but my heart is filled with anticipation because there’s a bullet train with my darling Keana on it, and it’s heading my way. She’ll be here in 2 hours, and I just cannot wait to see her. That much I know for sure.
I am continually amazed by the people all over the world that God has drawn us into friendship and partnership with. My goodness, we are so blessed! 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 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 and pushes us forward.
Thank you for hanging in there with us!
