365 days. 12 months. 1 year.
No matter which way you look at it, a year is a long time, but it also flies by.
A lot changes in a year. People get older. People get wiser. People get engaged. People get married. People live and people die. And all of this happens whether we want it to or not.
Almost a month ago, I graduated from college, how weird is that. I packed up four years of living into the back of a uhaul and my mom drove it back to her house. I slowly and reluctantly said my “see ya laters” and eventually left the town that I call home.
All my best people. My best places. My mentors and leaders. They all got to stay. Yet, I knew my season was over. I had been preparing for it for a while, often telling my friends “I really am ready for this season to be over”, except when it actually ended, I was sad. I cried (read: bawled) and I swept all the dust bunnies out of my room, preparing it for the next friend who would live there.
I think the hardest thing to accept since deciding to go on the Race has been the fact that life will in fact move on without me here in the States. My people will do big things and begin to change the world in their own special ways. My people are going to get engaged. My people are going to get married. My people are going to continue their lives. My people might even die.
And me? I will be sad, surely, I will be. But how can I be sad when the Creator of the Universe has called me by name to be the light, to be the hands and feet, to show love to people that are often overlooked?
Wanting to attend these engagement parties, weddings, birthdays, ceremonies, etc. is the piece of me that wants to be comfortable. The piece of my heart that longs to be with my people. Sometimes, I think that I deserve that. But that’s my selfish heart. The part that believes I need comfort. The part of me that doesn’t lean on the Lord and doesn’t trust Him wholeheartedly.
I think it’s okay to wonder what great things my people will do in the next year. To wonder how they will change the world and what great things they will experience, but I have slowly begun to realize that I don’t need to know or see. We are not called to comfort, and that’s the wild thing about life. Sometimes comfort can rob us of our strength and dependence on God.
What would it be like to be obedient to the Lord and walk in faith from the beginning of our comfort zone to wherever we are called? There are so many great men and women of the Bible who have done the same thing. He provided for them. He made a way for them. He used them in ways they would have never been used on their own. And He will do the same for you.
Jump into the deep end, dear friends, and you will find that the Lord has some crazy sweet things planned for you too.
so much love,
carly
