We recently got another team change (intros later)! With that, has come new conversations and new growth.
With only 40 days until we are on American soil again, the topic of conversation that comes up frequently is: life once we’re home.
It manifests in different ways depending on the person, day, or our emotional status. Sometimes, the conversation is about what clothes we want, how we want to style our hair, the things we are most looking forward to (Chick-fil-A, personal hygiene, and our own beds- we’re looking at you!), and the relationships we can’t wait to further.
Sometimes the conversation is about things we didn’t realize we’d miss about this crazy life we’ve been living for the better part of a year. We’ll miss the conversations we have on travel days (vulnerability comes out when you’re trapped on a bus for hours), the camaraderie we have with each other because we’ve survived the same hilarious and terrifying things (food in Vietnam, markets in Africa, hostage crisis in Peru), and the way and level of intensity with which we love and live for the Lord.
This blog is and isn’t about any of the above. This blog is about our fears, and our desires for home.
We fear that our friends won’t recognize the “new” us. We fear that we’ll be too intense, too vulnerable, too into feedback. We fear that our higher morals will create conviction in others, and therefore conflict between us and them. We fear that we will no longer fit into the American Dream mold. We don’t want to work 9-5 jobs where we sit at a computer and punch numbers. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but we’ve seen the world for all it’s good, bad, hard, and beautiful and God has ignited something inside of us that means we will never be the same.
The thing is, God broke the mold with us. He asked us to leave the American Dream and go out into the world in search of Him, in search of His Lost and Broken. He set a tiny flame inside of our souls and has stoked it, and cared for it, and grown it into a wildly raging fire that can never be extinguished. He has broken the ‘us’ we were when we started the race, and shaped and reshaped us to look more and more like Jesus.
As we look forward to going home, we are all a little afraid of being different, of standing out, of making people angry, of saying something that is scriptural but upsetting to our friends and loved ones. We are afraid of being counter-cultural.
But that’s exactly how we are supposed to be.
Jesus was counter-cultural in every sense of the phrase. He bucked tradition, spoke the truth, and lived His life in a way that was in every way oppositional to his culture and time in history. God is calling us (and all of you) to live our lives in the same way. He’s asking us to love Him and follow Him. Living for the Lord costs, always. But any sacrifice we may make is 100% worth it.
Friends and family from home may not understand why we no longer drink, no longer cuss, no longer watch movies with an R rating, no longer have sex with people who aren’t our spouses. Our community may not understand why we spend so much time in prayer, worship, and reading the Bible. The ones we love may not understand why we are suddenly into healthy conflict, calling out the parts of them that are sometimes out of character and calling them into their true identity in Christ.
There’s a whole lot that our communities may not understand about us when we get home. And it’s really okay.
Jesus lived His life in a way that created a terrible uproar in His community, among his people, and even with the government. People didn’t understand, and people hated Him. People put Him to death for the way He lived. And while that may seem kind of scary, that’s exactly how I want to live my life. I want the whole world to know how deeply and eternally I’m in love with Jesus, and if it costs me friendships, if people hate me, if even the government wants to shut me up…all the better. I’d rather live my life in a terrible uproar for Jesus than stay quiet and not serve Him the way He’s called me to live and love. He set me on fire and I don’t want anything to hide the flames.
In what ways has God broken you out of the mold? How has He set you on fire? In what ways is God calling you to live a terrible uproar in your world?
Momma, Dad, Sue, LB, Aussie, and Skouty girl – I love you and miss you. I can’t wait to be on the beach with you, eating cake by the ocean! 40 more days!
Special shoutout to you, Momma – HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! I want you to know it’s all because of you. I never would have been brave enough to do the WR if you hadn’t told me every day that I could do/be anything I wanted. You are the best mom in the whole world and I’m just so thankful God made me yours. You are beautiful, strong, funny, kind, and worthy and chosen by the One True King, our Father. I am so thankful that I get to be your daughter, but now also your sister in Christ. It’s an honor. I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my momma you’ll be.
