I recently made a trip back to Iowa, and got to tell lots of friends and family about this awesome adventure I’m about to head out on. I was really surprised by how many of them responded with something along the lines of “Really? I would not have expected that from you!”
I was really curious about what had led them to that expectation. The general explanation was something along the lines of “You have always seemed to know what you want. You never were unsure, or felt the need to go explore your options and figure out what’s next.”
After highschool, I went to college for engineering, graduated with my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, went back one more year for my M.S., and now here I am, about to graduate and be done with school for good. So why not move down to Kansas City, start my dream job, in the same town with several of my good friends, and live for Jesus there?
Am I going on this trip because I don’t know what to do with my life? Because I’m unsure where God’s leading me, and hoping that spending 11 months serving Him will give me a direction to go with my life? Not really, no. I’m not saying those are bad things for one to do, just saying that’s not me.
I believe the Lord is calling me to go on this trip, and I am going for 2 reasons.
1) Because I want to be obedient, and spend 11 months being a part of a team that is serving the Lord in whatever way we are lead. I’m so excited (and scared!) to completely drop everything else in my life for a year, and totally jump into serving – showing up to be a tool He can use, and getting to see God do awesome things in crazy ways!
2) Because I think it will play a big role in “setting the tone” for my life, and helping clarify and contrast the difference between making God a big part of what I do, and living my life serving Him and His vision for my life. I really desire the latter, but I know my personality is very conducive to sliding into the former.
So yeah! Time to live out Romans 12!
