*Update* My blog now lives here!
“The numbness sets in as we drive away from our 11th home of the year. I say my final goodbyes and look forward to a year’s worth of reunions at home. My heart overrides with a mix of emotions, but I cover it with a smile as I say goodbye. When the end draws near, there are so many questions.
Looking back-
Could I have loved better? Did I give everything? Did I make the most of the past year? How was God glorified in and through me this year? How have I changed?
Looking forward-
How will my experiences change who I am at home? How will My relationship with God look in yet another environment? Where will I find discipleship? What does God have for me next?
Coming home is comfortable yet uncomfortable. I’m not the same, and neither is the place I’m returning to. I want to never leave my friends again, but I know I’ll soon return to the corners of the earth where few people go.”
Those are the words I wrote in May as I finished the Race. And in the midst of a life of transition, here’s what I’m learning and my advice for anyone whose heart is prone to wander: Actively embrace love.
Live purposefully wherever you are and don’t pass up an opportunity to love. I find that this is easy for me to do for a short amount of time, but as time goes on, it becomes more of a challenge. I am tempted to disengage but also reminded that God never turns us away, no matter how many times we come to Him, how focused we are on ourselves, or how much we are lacking in faith.
Love doesn’t have to be an extravagant show or remarkable action for the world to be changed. It is celebrating the little things in a friend’s life, listening to a burdened heart, pointing out the strengths of others, knowing people deeply. It is thinking less “I” and more “you.” Love is smiling at a stranger and laughing with them. These are the things that God uses to change the world, because love means being present, like Jesus living among us.
So choose love today, whether that means getting on a plane and visiting a friend, letting your pals choose where you get dinner, laughing with someone whose heart is heavy, turning a stranger into a friend, or telling someone what you love about them.
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends (1 Cor 13:7&8).”
