whitney dziurawiec

A few months ago, I was asked by my Omaha church to be one of the speakers at their Women's Retreat. The theme of the retreat was stories (one of my FAVORITE things), and this is what God laid on my heart to share with those wonderful women this past weekend. I pray it will encourage you in whatever walk of life you're in.   In thinking about my story, I think about meeting my high school friend, Kayla, at a coffee shop a few weeks ago to catch up. The four years since I’d seen Kayla had blurred into a blink, and naturally I thought of her as the same, innocent girl I’d hugged tightly at high school graduation. But as the condensation on my iced coffee dripped onto my hand and the barista loudly talked to the customer in the drive-thru, I remained undistracted from Kayla’s engulfing prodigal-like story. I sat wide-eyed as tales of promiscuity, drunkenness, rebellion, insecurities, and finally of the restoration she found in Christ poured out into the space between us, hang...

The question expanded in my chest with each breath I've taken in this prairie air. Larger and larger and, coincidentally, more and more depressing. These disjointed thoughts which came to a head in one single question to my ever-patient husband: Have you ever thought about how meaningless it all is? It's taken so long to say this aloud because it seems wrong that things that seem to satisfy others don't satisfy me. Am I just a prideful snot, unimpressed by ideals that people have (even Christians...and especially politically conservative Christians) because the hearts of men are always depraved and things are never quite right?  For years I've wondered why I leave a conversation with a friend unsatisfied because the topics go as far deep as which TV show is the juiciest. I love my husband {he is the best} but often I wonder why I (and so many Christians) put so much stock into this one relationship where we really just find out how selfish we really are. I wake up ...