When was the last time you
took off on a journey without any expectations? Have you ever gotten on a bus with no idea where you will be
getting off, who will be picking you up or what you will be doing for the next
month?
My entire life has been predicated on always knowing the
“W’s” of life–who, what, when, where, and why. Between family, friends, church, school and work, I
generally have the majority of life’s nouns all figured out. Its with this background in mind
that my team and I left training camp in Matamata and embarked on the
unknown.
o Wellington and a man named Brendenshould be there to meet you and tell you what to do next.”
Twelve hours and hundreds of kilometers later, we limped off the bus and
removed our packs in the middle of a monsoon. Seeking shelter in an abandoned train station, we waited,
making eye contact with passing strangers in the hope of meeting this
mysterious “Brenden.” Although I
didn’t think much of it at the time, the whole situation was relatively
insane. Here I was with 6 people I
barely knew, in a completely foreign country, in search of a man none of us had
ever met, prepared to do whatever it is he’d have me do. Despite all my innate control-freak
tendencies, I was stepping forward without having any of the answers.
And yet, for one of the first times in my life, I finally
had the important answer….WHY.
I’ve spent my entire life doing things I thought I was supposed to do
based on plugging in predictable nouns into my life journey’s Mad Libs®.
But this time it’s different.
This time it’s not so much about the words that make up the sentence,
but the author’s heart while writing.
Regardless of whether I am preaching from the rooftops or shoveling dirt in the rain, all that really matters is that I continue to follow God’s voice
and go whereever he leads me. As
long as I remember the “why,” all the other W’s will fall into place.
