I have had a rough couple weeks. I started training for a new and very different job within my company, I left the job I had been doing for 4 ½ years with very little attention paid to my leaving, and I quit my part time job. When I was leaving my jobs for the adventure of a lifetime it was fine, but to leave to move to a different department it is a little tougher…far tougher than I expected. While I am sure home health will be a good experience and a bit of an adventure, I certainly hope it won't be one of the biggest adventures in my life. That would make me very sad.

 

Then to top it off, I watched the squad that I was planning on spending the next year with leave without me. As excited as I am for these amazing people, I am just as heartbroken that I don't get to be with them. These people are going to change the world, and I want to see every moment of it and help them, but instead I get a “not yet”.

 

Poor Michael has had the unfortunate pleasure of living with a basket case recently. But I recently came to an important conclusion. I can do 1 of 2 things.

 

1.I can spend the next 6 months grieving the fact that I am not overseas, feeling like I have been wronged, and making myself and everyone around me miserable.

 

2. I can take the next 6 months and see everything that I do here in the USA as bonus. Everything that I learn, everything I see, everything I do as something that I wouldn't have gotten to do if I were overseas at that time.

 

As I still struggle to make sense of this postponement, the fact that it doesn't make sense convinces me further that God has a good reason for this. So we are going to try to take advantage of all the things we thought we were going to miss.

 

  • I am really excited to go to my cousin's graduation party this weekend

  • I am hoping that we will have more opportunities to visit with extended family over the next 6 months

  • I have a class reunion that I will now be able to attend

  • I have a couple weddings that I am excited to be a part of now

  • Our church is having a couple awesome concerts that I now get to go to and maybe help with

  • I have plans to do a mud run which I am rather pumped for

  • I also have a great opportunity in my career to learn about home health, which has so far been a good experience, and could potentially be something I do long term…who knows

 

Basically everything that we have the chance to be involved in over the next 6 months could be the very reason that we had to stay behind. I plan to do my very best to look for these things rather than look for the reasons we shouldn't be here.

 

I had my first “I would have missed that” moment this week, and I hope to find many more over the weeks to come. I don't expect that I will do this perfectly, but I will certainly try. God knows what he is doing, I don't, so instead I get to be excited not only to leave for the world race, but to take full advantage of the bonus time that we have been given.

 

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 2 Peter 3:8

 

Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:14