June, 2026 – Let Me Be Sincerely Me

How blessed one is to be loved and nurtured and supported.  Oh, I definitely have two or three in my life that have seen it as their ‘calling’ to disrupt God’s ‘assignment’ in my life with the intention, even, to perhaps destroy not only the ministry God entrusted to me, but also, me, personally.  Those have been difficult times – and unfortunately, are ongoing ones.

But then there are those whom I consider my ‘spiritual cheerleaders’.  Recently, a young fellow and former Love From Above volunteer in Romania wrote simply, “Thank you so very much, Dawn – our Romanian from the States! I really miss you, and the ‘kids’.”  How encouraging!  It came at a time when it was so needed.

From twenty-five years ago, I still have a hand-made note on my fridge from the first couple who ever supported LFA – who have now been in Glory for several years.  There is a sticker of an angel on the front and hand-written words:  ‘Dawn, our angel in Romania’.

A precious couple whom I have known all my years there, gave me a little glass angel in an envelope saying, ‘You are our angel’ (to Romania).

For more than three and a half years, I volunteered three to four late afternoon/evenings at a Rescue Mission in Providence.  While serving them up the birthday cake I had made for them, hearing them say that they had never had a birthday cake before (can you imagine?!) broke my heart – but then hearing their words, “You are our angel . . . “

Not everyone has used the term ‘angel’.  Recently, I told a precious couple at my church here in MA that I like to sit in a different place every Sunday in order to connect with new people and re-connect with ones I have known for years.  The response from them was, “Oh, Dawn – everyone here knows you and loves you”.  How sweet!  (My point was, though, that I felt the deep need to get to know them.)

I thank God for so many encouragers/’spiritual cheerleaders’ in my life.  The last I will mention, though, is the response of my own sons.  I was beyond privileged to ‘minister on pitch’ (do concerts) from time to time during their teen years.  It was a family affair, actually.  My boys were my ‘roadies’.  They knew exactly what to do as we arrived at a church or para-church venue in setting up all the equipment.  They told me more than once how much they loved what I did – and what a great concert it had been.  I knew that if I were ‘one person’ in front of people, and ‘another person’ at home, that their feelings towards me would have been much different.  They knew that I was ‘sincerely me’ no matter the platform.

Having said all this – still, no one knows us better than we ourselves.  There have been countless times when I have been other than what people see publicly.  For those times, I am deeply sorry.  In those times, I disappoint no one more deeply than myself.  At those times, I go to my knees and confess.  It is Jesus Whom I desire to be like – to think like – to love like – to act and re-act like all the time.  But I don’t always – rarely can make it through a day without being that person I don’t want to be.  It is difficult to live in the duality of still having the ‘old nature’, but having ‘put on’ the ‘new nature’.  The apostle Paul understood this.  In Romans 7:14-19, he explains because of the ‘old nature’, he wants to do all things right, but finds himself doing the things that he despises.

Paul’s words give me hope.  For all who see me as ‘one person’, I would want them to know that this walk with Christ is difficult.  I really do want to always do the right thing – but as Paul explains, it is the sin that lives in me that way too often makes the wrong choices.  To all who read this, it will always be my heart’s desire to live pure before Christ – to be that ‘sincerely me’ no matter where I am, or what I am doing – to be the person people think I am . . .