Even Peet's Coffee where the early morning bikers normally flood was slow.
The leaves in the sycamore trees were just starting to lose their green announcing the arrival of September.
My morning walk carried me along the iron horse trail…
past the farmer's market where the locals were just setting up their stalls, past the high school and the old man who faithfully sat on the same bench every morning, on over the bridge, and the memories rolled in with the miles.
The fog was heavy that morning, matching the weight I felt in my soul.
I was going to miss this town.
Although, it wasn’t so much the town as much as the people within it.
And the burden pressing against my chest wasn’t just gloom, but there was other stuff in there too…
Overwhelming gratitude.
Deep affection.
Growing anticipation.
Hunger for adventure.
Excitement mixed with hints of fears.
My sentiments were an odd mix of bittersweet.
I was reminded of the feeling you get when you’re resting on a warm dock in the middle of a lake.
As you’re laying there, you moan at the thought of jumping in… Cold water washing over every bit of your body.
You think if I just stayed here one more minute the sunrays might melt me into the dock itself and I will never again have to move.
Summer has been a time of much needed rest.
Away from constant activity that I both love and hate at UCLA, my soul found rest in the comfort of home. Mornings had taken a therapeutic routine of getting up early, wrapping myself in a blanket on my back patio with my Bible, journal, and
The day time brought craft projects, icecream dates with friends, bikerides, trips to REI, cardmaking, babysitting, Mamma’s homecooking, trips to the lake, prayer walks- and little by little I felt Me again.
At home and at peace.
And just when I was getting so comfortable I started to think I could be perfectly content never leaving Danville, it turned into September,
and it was time to get off the dock.
A friend shared with me what God said to Abraham:
"Leave your country, your people, and your father's house and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you: I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse: and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Gen 12:1-3
As I walked through the streets of Danville, I felt God calling me away from my ‘fathers house’, away from my ‘people,'
and part of me didn’t want to go.
But just as God was faithful to Abraham, the first missionary called from his homeland, so my God would be faithful to me.
He would bless me.
And He would bless others through me.
And in the process, I would be stretched and refined and in the end look a bit more like his Son than when I started.
So I take a long breath, stretch my muscles, brace for the cold,
and jump.
