There is a young girl being tutored in algebra sitting at the table across from me. A relaxed, married man calmly working on his Mac while sipping on a mocha is sitting to the right of me. And two older gentleman feverishly working on their laptops right next to me. I am sitting in my favorite place is the world, the Starbucks at Barnes and Noble. Amidst the horrors surrounding Haiti, the depressing economy, people growing up and getting married, going to grad school, or raising money for a mission trip, life goes on. Throughout this process of raising $14,300 and traveling to 11 different countries in 11 months, life meanders on. When I set my mind to something, sometimes I forget about the here and now, and concentrate everything I am on getting that goal accomplished instead of enjoying the journey. Like my life right now. Here I am, so future focused; giving my time, energy, money and devotion to reach the final goal of raising necessary funds and ultimately experiencing God in ways I would have never imagined in countries I never thought I would go to. Everything that I am right now is being devoted to an end result of a year-long mission trip. All of that considered, what do I do in the meantime? How can I live in the now and appreciate every minute I spend with my friends and family when my mind keeps wondering off to July 1st? God is slowly teaching me this lesson, not only for this season of my life, but for every season of my life. That no matter where I am headed, or how excited about I am about the things to come, that I need to remember how important the journey is and try to enjoy it. That I still need to serve and give now, even though where I am geographically located right now is temporary. But when you think about it, isn’t every phase of your life temporary? I mean you never truly know where your job will take you, who you will meet, and ultimately where the Holy Spirit will lead you to serve and live. What if we started living as if every day was the future, and that when the end result came, it was a beautiful surprise? As if we were enjoying every moment of our lives so much, that when the “end result” of whatever we were working towards arrived, it was such a pleasant surprise, that we couldn’t do anything else but rejoice! (Please excuse the run-on, I just couldn’t spit it all out!) I don’t know, just typing here 🙂 But this is something God has recently laid on my heart and I hope it makes sense and that I’m not just babbling on.
Well friends, until next time–if you can stand the wait 😉
