Sometimes I get really excited about future happenings. I’ll spend hours daydreaming about how everything will pan out wonderfully and how I will feel more alive than I’ve ever been. Life will be a box of chocolates and then some.
Unfortunately, the older I get the more I’ve found that the future happenings aren’t as glamorous as I usually dream them up to be. Day-to-day life isn’t all adventure and love and happiness. Sometimes it’s quite the opposite.
For instance, I could hardly contain myself before I moved to Nashville, TN at the beginning of this year. I was to live in a house with five of my best friends–what could be better? We did have a great time–we built forts in our living room and ate ice cream out of the carton on the kitchen floor and snuggled on the couch as we watched our favorite movies or TV shows.
But my time in Nashville wasn’t all fun and games. In order to pay rent I had to have a job. I lived through one too many late night at Applebees, where I found myself falling asleep at the host stand and wondering what my life had become.
When I was in Nashville I was eagerly looking forward to the World Race. Traveling the world with a group of passionate people who want to bring Jesus Christ to the nations–what could be better? Well…if you had asked me that a few days ago I’m sure I could’ve come up with a number of better ways to live my life. Those few days were spent painting the bottoms of trees and picking up pinecones (I’m not exactly sure why…) Each day seemed monotonous and pointless.
“I don’t feel too much like myself. I have no drive. I just feel tired.” I wrote in my diary one night.
I suppose we’re all destined to days like those. It’s just part of life.
But then, there are good days. Even great days. I’m happy to tell you that these last few days I’ve been passionately overwhelmed with how lovely life really is. My soul feels refreshed with a new outpouring of hope, joy, and love. Physically, my body is better than it has been since the first week of this journey. I’m getting along with my teammates better than ever before.
The best part is that I did nothing to change myself–all I did was ask for more of God’s grace.
Even though I know not every day will be as good as these last few have been, I know that at the end of the World Race I’ll have had an incredible time. And even though every day of my life won’t be an adventure, I know that at the end of it I’ll have felt that it was. Like the old man at the end of the Disney Pixar movie Up, I’ll look back over my life and be overwhelmed by what an adventure it truly turned out to be.
The adventure isn’t just living in Nashville with my best friends, or traveling to a bunch of countries in a year, or getting married, having kids, getting a job…my life is and will continue to be an adventure because Jesus Christ is the author of it all. All I have to do is follow. To ask for more grace when I most need it. To trust even though it doesn’t make sense. To believe in hope despite the odds.
Well…this blog entry didn’t turn out the way I intended. But alas, that’s life. And isn’t it beautiful?
