Dear Megan...a letter of FAITH.

Dear Megan, 

"The nation doesn’t simply need what we have. It needs what we are." 

-St. Teresia Benedicta (Edith Stein)

It is not too often in life that we can identify the people or moments that really change us. It was over two years ago that I lay in bed on a random Sunday night. Scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook, I nonchalantly clicked a link my friend had posted. I suppose my lonely heart was looking for something. I was looking for something, I had no idea I even needed. 

As I started to read my heart practically leaped in my chest, the girl who so openly shared her journey in words on a pink background, MUST have been speaking directly to me. I continued to read and saw something so profound, so genuine, and so hopeful. 

My dream, all my life, has been to fall in love. And yes, the fairytale princess style love has always drawn my eye, but growing up in a sort of shattered love, I know that what my heart has always longed for most, was REAL love. That girl shared of her journey to find love. God had led her on a winding, exciting, trying, and beautiful adventure. And as she trusted Him, she promised, He had delivered beyond her wildest dreams. 

That girl, was YOU.

As I closed my eyes that night, I prayed that God would lead me on my own journey to love and hoped that one day I could be the girl looking back and saying, it was worth it. 

Months passed and my world stayed practically the same. But in the back of my mind, I had been inspired to go deeper in my faith and to trust more. Something had caught my attention. A simple girl, with a beaming smile and open heart, had touched me without even knowing who I was. Her life had changed mine. 

A writer by design, I suppose, I suddenly saw a new potential in myself. There are few things I am confident in, but what I knew for sure was that I saw God moving in my life, I trusted Him, and I suddenly realized, I had the ability to help the hearts of others through those things alone.

I guess I always invisioned sharing the gospel as being a microphone in hand, Bible quoting, personality for days, super funny, or eye catching kind of thing. But suddenly everything made sense. I could evangelize through the one way I knew how to say how I really felt, my writing. 

On December 31, 2011, I started a blog.

I had no idea what I was doing then, and still do not now. However, over a hundred blogs later and a record of God shaping my heart every week for the past two years, I can say wholeheartedly, this has been the biggest means of deepening my faith and my relationship with Christ. 

Beyond that, it has been the most beautiful way to journey towards love. I think for most of my life I always assumed to find love, I had to find a man. And do not get me wrong, men are awesome and I have faith God has a man hidden in the wings for me, but love does not have to wait for that man. Love is God. Love is journeying through your days with Him. Love is saying, "God, this is yours," and knowing He has the most amazing plans. Love is discovering what good God has designed in you, and believing in that. Love is friendships, and hope, and adventure. Love is the joy we feel when we open our hearts to people and let them in, whether we know them or not. Love is journeying together toward Heaven. Love is what I want to define my life and love is what you have so evidently let define yours! 

I had been blogging for almost an entire year before I actually met you in person, and am so blessed to say that I now consider you a friend and role model on a more personal level. But I think the most beautiful part of it all was you were able to speak to my heart through your honesty, without me even meeting you. Your words had the gift of allowing me to see the love of God within you! 

Because you opened up your heart to Christ and were willing to share your journey with others, I was able to discover where I fit in the bigger picture that is the cause of Christ. None of us can make the fight for Heaven alone, but each of us has some distinct role to play along the way. It was not until I read your blog that random September night, that I realized that God did indeed have a role for me! 

So often we find ourselves settling for the definition the world has for what woman are and what love is, and as a result we are molding ourselves into woman that we are not. Words on a page, from your heart, reminded me that I belong in this world, not to be forced into some strict definition of beauty or worth, but so that through me, God can remind us all that we are unique and precious in His eyes and worth more than most of the time we would ever believe. Days when I start to think what's the point, or is it worth it, I remind myself of a sweet girl named Megan Morgan, and the journey she had with God, and simply enough in that God reminds me her journey was beautiful and perfect for her and mine is equally beautiful and perfect for me! 

I write today because you wrote. I am able to more openly share the good news, because you were open to share it with me! And because of this, I have truly encountered love. So thank you! Thank you for trusting God enough to let Him shape your journey and thank you for being willing to share that journey with each of us! Thank you for desiring to journey with others towards Heaven! Your life has changed mine forever, no amount of words can say thank you for that! 

Here's to continuing to journey toward HEAVEN together! 

Love and prayers, 

Danielle