Finding Roses in the Dust

Chapter 12

Letter 43 - Roses in the Dust

Well, this will be my last letter from this side of the world. In just a few days we will head home and try to step back into life there. It’s hard to wrap my brain around the fact that this journey is coming to a close. It seems like only yesterday that I was trying to imagine what living in Afghanistan would be like; now I am wondering how I can give it up. This journey has taken me from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other and back many times, sometimes all in the same day. This country is a land of contrasts and extremes; great joy and great sadness. In one short drive I see so many amazing things—an old man with a cart being pulled by a donkey next to a $150,000 Land Rover; a man in a suit walking next to a man in a turban and traditional salwar kameez (traditional Afghan clothing); children playing in the dirt while a security guard stands by holding his machine gun; a kabob stand cooking all kinds of meat while a beggar is starving next to him. I see a billboard-sized plasma display screen above an open sewer with dead dogs and trash floating by. I see a woman wearing a burka walking down the street covering her business suit and her black eye as she walks to her office job. The assault on my senses is overwhelming, and often there is nowhere to file the pictures and the emotions as I go about my day.

As I reflect on this journey, I have to admit that though at times it has been difficult and confusing; the journey, as a whole, has been one of the most amazing and rewarding and sweet of any of which I have been blessed to be a part. Though the location and details of life are vastly different from my home country, the bottom line is that we have learned to live in this place. We go through our days doing what we can, taking care of our children, socializing with friends, being a part of activities and projects, sleeping, eating, cooking and cleaning; really not so different than life anywhere else. Yes, we have had to adjust to restrictions and dirt and guns and bombs and poverty, but life still moves forward. We have just learned to live it a bit slower and with more deliberate steps.

It was my hope that, in learning to live in this land, we would find the hidden beauty, forgotten and feared. I think we have done and seen just that. As I think of my time here, it’s not the difficult things that come to mind; it’s the beauty and splendor of a culture and its people, a life surrounded with grace, love, and support. It’s the hidden treasures of conversations and encounters with people I have learned to love and respect which are tucked into my heart. It’s the simple things of nature and provision and protection that fill my heart with such gratitude that I feel it will burst. It’s the knowledge that my Creator loves me and cares about every little thing I do, think, and feel, and the reflection on the fact that the Creator loves and cares for these people, too. It’s the realization that for our kids this journey will shape and alter them and their futures forever. It’s the simple gifts that each day brings, filling my life with a richness I haven’t known or haven’t taken time to know. It’s the gifts of family, relationships, time, provision, and protection that bring tears to my eyes when I reflect upon them. Mostly, it’s the gift of this journey itself for which I am most grateful. My eyes have been opened to so many things physically, emotionally, and spiritually; and those things are changing the way I live and think.

In these months, as many have graciously read these letters, it has been my wish that you too would glimpse the beauty of this land and its people. I hope that I have stirred a desire for you to think beyond the borders of your life and remember a people who suffer and long for freedom and truth. Most of all, I hope that in some way I have stirred some of the same things in you that I have wrestled with so that you can find the beauty in your own journey.

Thank you so much for traveling with me, taking this journey with us. I hope it has blessed you and given you gifts like it has me. Here’s to the journey, to the gifts, to the fears, to the sadness and joy and to the wonder and amazement of…Finding Roses in the Dust!

Personal Reflection

As I reflect on my time in Afghanistan and remember that we did learn to live in that place, and we learned that life really wasn’t so different at its core than our lives in the West, I am challenged to see the wonder and lessons and “roses” of my everyday life right here in America. My family, my friends, my “calling,” and my opportunities are layered with beautiful roses that spring out of the dirt and trash of my life. The roses bring beauty and color to my season of dull, gray, and disappointing days of “winter.”
I am challenged to be aware of what God wants to do in and through me every day, no matter where I live and no matter what I face.

Galatians 6:9
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart