So it’s at the point now where we’re halfway through the race and everyone is starting to think about life back home and what it will be like when we all get back. What job will you have? Are you thinking about marriage? Where will you live? What norms and practices are you going to put into place when you get back? Will you keep the same dedication with reading and being devoted to pursuing a deeper relationship with God? These are all extremely valid and kind of intimidating questions honestly. If you let your mind dwell on these too much without consulting God in any of it, it starts to consume your thoughts and you get distracted from the work God has right in front of you.
These past one or two months I have been struggling with all of these questions and have been doing exactly what I warned myself not to do… dwell on these thoughts. I’ve been exploring different career opportunities I could pursue when I get home and getting excited about that. Looking at maybe finding an apartment once I get established. I also can’t help but look at cars on Craigslist I could buy when I get home (Which was a normal pass-time when I was home anyways) S2000? Ole fashion American muscle like a Z28, Mustang, or Challenger? Jeep? Datsun? Anyways… as you can see, I’ve been spending time exploring what life back home has the possibility to be like. I’ve been thinking about all these things and possibilities and opportunities for when I get back home and realizing this past month, I found it utterly selfish for me to be consumed with all these worldly things, granted, being excited about it is one thing but I’ve let it be almost all I think about and let it distract me from the things God has for me here. Looking back on it and realizing it now I feel like that mistake could have cost me an even more important opportunity than some job opportunity back home, an opportunity to spread God’s love to the people around me.
This trip so far has grown me personally in so many ways; as a man of God, what that looks like, it’s grown me in my confidence in preaching to groups of people, the depth of my relationship with the The LORD, clarity on the direction God wants me to take when I get home, how to effectively read my bible and set a plan developing a routine for it, and countless other ways that I am happy to share with people upon request J. Battling against letting thoughts of home life and home sickness take control of my mind will be an on-going war for the rest of the race I’m sure of it but honestly that’s okay because it will cause friction and friction causes growth! J So this next month and for the rest of the race one of the things I’m going to be praying into is keeping my thoughts set on what God has for me every single day, THAT DAY, and not worrying about things of what life will be like when we all go home. Now this is something I think everyone can relate with. It’s the simple issue of anxiety, whether you’re struggling with being anxious at work, or with school, or worried about the career you’re going to school for, struggling with money, anything like that, lay it in God’s hands and trust him to do what he must so that his will may be done. He’s in control and he has your back! J
Prayer requests: I could definitely use prayer on keeping my mind on what God has for me each and every day and not being anxious about the future. THANK YOU!! J
I love and miss you all! Message me if you have any questions or want to talk! We have no wifi this month though so I’ll message you back when I get to the airport J Also please check out my teammates Greg Hall and Dana Karpinski’s blogs and consider supporting them as they could still use a little financial support! J
