Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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     People keep asking “What’s it like being home?”  “How are you doing?” “Is it weird being home?”  All normal questions for someone who just traveled to 11+ countries, saw unimaginable heartbreak, and has gone through 3 months of “American culture shock.” Overall, things are great and I have loved being home in the states. As much as I loved being gone, I also equally love being in the states. I realized that I like routines, and I like to know where I will be sleeping and if I will have a shower in the next week or not…ha.
    But being home has also brought on many challenges that I didn’t have prior to leaving. How does my role in the Kingdom fit in here state-side, what’s my next step, how can I help all of the individuals I have met “over there” while still being here??? SO many questions….not very many answers. But that’s OKAY! I know I’m not suppose to have it all figured out yet and the Lord will show me in time the answers to those questions.
    My teammate Josh Markland (http://joshuamarkland.wordpress.com/) or “Red Flame” as some of us like to call him, wrote this blog and I think it sums up a lot of what myself and my other teammates have gone through.  He’s a much better writer than me, so I think he sums it up pretty well.
P.S. I’m not going through a REAL midlife crisis, it’s just a good metaphor for what God does when he shakes you up a bit…
 


8
09
2009

I’ve decided to have my mid-life crisis early.  After all, I’ve got some free time and I don’t like to procrastinate.

As I continue to blow through my 20s like Joey Chesnut at a hot-dog
buffet, two things have become more and more apparent to me.  First, my
life post-college has looked about 3% like I thought it would while I
was still in college.  Second, the twentysomething stage of life for a
follower of Jesus Christ is WAY more difficult than that of the average
Joe College grad.  Allow me to explain.

Life after college was supposed to be like life during college, only
with money.  Yeah, having to show up at work everyday would be a drag,
but $50k+ per year with hardly any expenses and only a shred of
responsibility would be amazing.  It would be just as fun and free as
college, only you wouldn’t live in a disgusting apartment and survive
off of ramen noodles and Hungry Man dinners.  Hello nice dinners,
goodbye high cholesterol.

Reality has been a series of identity crises mixed with having no
money and living an extremely adventurous life.  That sentence doesn’t
seem to make sense.  How can those things all mix together at once?  Because I’ve devoted my life to Christ, I’ve gone through the
sometimes painful process of relinquishing ‘me’, my plans, my wants, my
grip on life.  I’ve begun to learn what it means to live with an open
palm, to allow God to give and take as he sees fit, grasping onto Him
and not onto the things.  Notice that I say I’ve begun to learn; I’ve
in no way become proficient at this yet, thus the painfulness of the
process.  But the process has forced me to deal with major things like
life calling, identity,  etc.

I suppose God’s graciously allowing me (and the rest of a generation
of believers my age) to go through that process now.  No, post-college
life hasn’t been the ‘college continued, only with money’ experience
like I thought it would be. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve traveled the world and had more
adventure and excitement than I ever thought I would by age 26.  I guess the same holds true
whether you’re 46 or 26.  Just ask Solomon.