I forgot how much I loved traveling. How much I loved not being known and not knowing others. How free it felt to not quite be somewhere but to be on my way. How blissfully alone and yet together it felt to not understand the conversation next to me but to still hear the love in it or the tension or a mix of the two.
There’s a reason we all love journeys or at least stories of journeys. Because as humans we were designed to always want more. And when we always want more of the wrong thing it can lead to brokenness, destruction, addiction. But when we fall in love with our own stories and the steps we take to the next chapter, that’s when things get interesting.
I believe there are times when we avoid our own stories, whether through books, movies, tv. It’s just easier to see someone else do it for us. But when we look up at God and say, “Hey what’s next?” I’m sure He smiles. I’m sure He even laughs sometimes and rubs His huge hands together in excitement, turning to the Angels saying, “Watch. Things are about to get good.”
I started this blog in an airport in Qatar and I’m ending it in a restaurant in Swaziland. I never thought my life would be this way but I always yearned for something different than 9-5’s and white picket fences.
I could say that all it took was a “yes” to God but that would be selling this journey short. It took and is still taking a lot of sacrifice. Sacrifice of time and money. And it takes a lot of brokenness to feel this complete.
I have met so many broken people and I am a broken person and sometimes you just have to sit in brokenness and cry and hold each other. And maybe that is the best worst feeling in the world. Or maybe it’s the worst best feeling. But it is a feeling of oneness that doesn’t quite come from everyday life in Lake County. Because God sits there with us and holds us and prays over us in words more beautiful than any language on Earth.
So maybe I’ve reached my destination but I know more destinations are coming and I will be in transit again as I am continually in transition to the next person(s) I will meet and the next me God will call me to be. Sometimes it’s exhausting and I just want to be home as in heaven not as in house. Or sometimes I want to be done and complete and fully together. But that would probably just bore me, honestly.
Maybe you are in transit or in transition. Maybe you’re waiting for a connecting flight or a connection with someone. Either way, know that you will get there through and with Christ. He never delays. He never cancels.
I read this quote and immediately I wrote it down to be a reminder to myself. Not only for travel but also for life and the different journeys He has us on. Brian McLaren wrote in his book A New Kind of Christian, “When you’re on a really long voyage, you have to get beyond asking, ‘Are we there yet?’ and instead start asking, ‘Are we making progress?”
I know I am.
