Going Out on a Limb

I'm not going to lie, this past year was hard. My theme was - Anything can happen, and pretty much anything did. Dad got injured playing tennis, Mom got cancer, Taylor University shut down, Amy moved out and moved back. I moved out. Dad went back to pastoring. Lots and lots of change. Many opportunities for trust and growth.

When I think about it I am not where I thought I would be at this point in my life, career wise, relationally, spiritually or even academically. Most importantly whether I hear God and how I hear God came into question. Which meant essentially that I lost quite a bit of sleep and a lot of head space for awhile there. Now I wouldn't say I came out unscathed or that I have any answers but there is something glorious arising from this all. Its the faintest blush of deeper character formation. The beginnings of being more like my best friend. I think I'll call these saplings hope and trust. Somehow in the midst of and after the turbulence of 2009 I have come out believing that my best interest is truly what is on his heart and mind. This knowledge is my firm foundation, the limb I'm going to rest on for awhile. So to a small degree I feel I have arrived, weary and care torn, but the scent of freedom is in the air and I'm beginning to enjoy the view. Maybe I'll even swing my feet.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

En Route Stories

Image
Ahoj! This is my second day in Prague. I arrived at 1 o'clock (Czech time) on Saturday afternoon. I have already had the chance to do some sight seeing and this evening I went to the local church. Sadly, the Southcity Church (which meets in an elementary school) is the only evangelical church in the Southcity side of Prague's 4th district. There is one Catholic church also but that's it. This means there are only 2 churches for 45 thousand people! Can you imagine? On the way to the service Mark Potma (missionaries I'm staying with) told me that Czechs don't even use churches for weddings and funerals! But I was going to talk about my flights. Wow! I could totally tell you guys were praying. Everything went so smoothly. I also got to have some really neat conversations with the people who sat next to me. From Chicago to London I ended up sitting between two University of Missouri students. They were also on their way to Prague for an exchange/study abroad program. Jo
Read more

Training in the windy city

Greetings from Chicago!! I must say that the city lives up to its name. Yesterday when we toured downtown it was quite windy so I got to sport the windblown look for the evening. Chicago also has great older buildings, amazing deep dish pizza and a gorgeous sky line! I took a ton of pictures and really enjoyed being a tourist for the day. I'll post some of them when I have some more time. Training here at TEAM headquarters in Wheaton has been fairly intense. We have breakfast at 7:15 and start sessions at 8 a.m. Its a pretty non-stop day. Really relevant info for the most part though. We've learned lots of good safety travel tips, what to expect if a TEAMserve missionary gets kidnapped, how to avoid being pick pocketed, etc. I don't think I'll have to worry about the kidnapping stuff but there is a gal going to Eastern Asia so that stuff is relevant. Also learned about TEAMs history as an organization, what to be aware of as far as knowing our own expectations, the best
Read more

Meltdown

I released my death grip on the bar. Even if I did fall after a sharp turn the press of bodies in the bus would probably keep me from hitting the floor. The smell of unwashed bodies mingled with the smell of open sewage from the ´river´ (read open sewer canal/channel) that runs parallel with the road and flows into an actual river somewhere in Sao Paulo. All of this reminding me yet again that I am very very far from home. Today was hard that way. It wasn´t so much the sewer or the fact that I waited a half hour for my bus. It was really an accumulation of many factors. The lack of private space, the inability to get around efficiently and effectively, the fact that no one seemed to be placing a priority on finding a new place for me to stay and of course the lack of sleep, all of which led to a tearful morning. I was ready to pack my bags and head home. There is only so much ´otherness´ that a person can take and I´d reached my limit. Thankfully everyone was very understanding and I a
Read more