Over the years the Lord has continually reminded me through His love and grace, that people, relationships, opportunities and experiences, are so much more life giving and fulfilling than anything that I could tangibly hold. As I am preparing for the World Race I am learning that this is true now more than ever.
For my final two years in college I was so lucky. I lived in a home referred to as “The Mansion” with 10 of my closest friends. It was a house full of love, laughter, encouragement and community, and it was incredible. The house was a double duplex and the four apartments were conjoined so most of us had our own bedroom, there were four kitchens, four washers and dryers and two living rooms. Needless to say it was spacious and comfortable.
As I moved out I realized that while this beloved home accumulated lots of memories it also gathered a lot of excess stuff. I had furniture, clothes, appliances, decorations, pictures frames, and lots of random unnecessary items. You name it I could find it in that house. So, after two years of buildup I needed a U-Haul truck to move out completely. In the midst of moving I realized how different my next phase of life will be.
I’ve moved from ‘The Mansion’ with the help of a U-Haul and will be moving into a tent and a backpack with just the bare essentials. I’m trading in my comfortable bed for a sleeping bag and pad, my two closets for a 65 Liter backpack and a sturdy, stable home for a portable tent. I am voluntarily entering into a foreign, uncomfortable life. Why? Because Jesus did.
“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.” -1 Peter 2:21
It would have been so much more comfortable for Jesus to stay in His perfect, glorious Kingdom where things were unbroken, where there was no darkness: where He belonged. Instead He was obedient to His Father. He came down from Heaven to enter into sin and brokenness. He came to live as the Light in darkness, to bring hope, love, and eternal life. As a follower of Jesus and a child of God, my Father has asked me to leave my comfortablility for His glory. I am not boasting in what I am doing for the next year. I am not doing this for people to look at me and be amazed. None of the glory is mine and I will not accept it. I am doing this for Jesus and all glory is His, forever.
I want to be uncomfortable. I want to see the world outside of the bubble that I live in. I want to see the hopeless places of the world and be able to see hope restored to them through Jesus, watching redemption happen before my eyes. I want to be thrown into the world like Jesus threw Himself into ours.
I am leaving this home and leaving behind my stuff and my comfort, my tangible happiness, to live a life of abandonment and cling to the true joy that only Jesus can satisfy. My new home is a tent and my new address will be wherever the Lord calls me. For the next 11 months I will carry my home, my closet and my bed on my back. I know that no matter where I am and how I am living that my ‘home’ is temporary. Thanks to Jesus my home is Heaven. That is where I ultimately belong and I know that eventually I am promised that. But until then I will live my life serving the One who made me, the One who knows me fully, my Father, my Maker, my Protector. I have full confidence that the Lord will be with me next year, wherever that may be, and I am so excited to enter into this adventure that the Lord has so clearly blessed.
