Readers, meet Teri.
Teri is the reason I went on the Fall Dream Tour 2011. Well, Teri and God.
I first met Teri in Gainesville, Georgia, sitting in an office at AIM headquarters at a table with scribbled words, verses, and dinosaurs all over it. God has given Teri a dream. A dream to reach deep into the American church, grab hold of all that hidden potential, and pull it out into the raw, real, day-in, day-out world.
You could probably call her life a spark. A John the Baptist sort of call. Or a cold bucket of water to rouse a sleeping giant. Whichever you prefer.
After five weeks on the road together, this is what I have learned about Teri:
She likes chips. Blue ones especially. She loves asking her six-year old daughter, “Do you know - do you know how much I love you?” She’s writing a book, and the plot is fascinating. She sometimes snores (hi, Teri :-)). She loves Ireland, Scotland, and Tennessee. But that’s not all I know.
Teri has an unstoppable, passionate determination to follow the dream God has given her. She had a conversation once with a fellow worker at AIM. Life was rough just then, and Teri was wondering if maybe she’d heard wrong and ought to move into something a little more normal.
This is what she said: “I can’t do this. I used to know how to do these things.” (Teri used to be a strategic planner.) “But now? I don’t know how to do this. I’m screwing everything up.”
Her co-worker’s response? “Teri, you don’t have any idea how much you mean to us. We watch you. We’ve seen how much you’ve given up. You inspire us.”
Why? Because the things that are holding America back are the very things that Teri’s giving away. She’s given up her family, her house, her job, security, stability, retirement, sanity, even her dog Abner. And the more she loses her life, the more abundant the life she finds. And she’s more compelled today than she was yesterday. And she was more compelled yesterday than she was the day before. This is living in the gap between what we have and what we need. This is where we see God show up.
Those are Teri’s words, not mine.
I’ve come away from the tour thinking we could use a few more Teri’s in the States. I’ve seen her walk up and pray for total strangers. I’ve seen her share hugs and a laugh with former prostitutes. I’ve seen her encourage pastors and other missionaries. I’ve seen her skip through a parking garage with her daughter, ride a horse for only the second time in her life, praise God for a broken window, and paddle a kayak under the stars. I’ve seen the living, holy, present Almighty God be glorified in Teri’s life.
She doesn’t live half-heartedly. She doesn’t always know what she’s doing, and she doesn’t always get it right. But there’s no turning back now, and she knows it. As she herself said, “I’m in, baby!”
