Are you ready to LEAVE?
When do you LEAVE for the race?
So you LEAVE pretty soon right?
These are the questions I get asked just about every day now.
As January 7th grows nearer, they all revolve around one topic: LEAVING.
It’s an idea that’s been in the back of my mind since March. An idea that I’ve known was coming, but that I’ve put off, thinking I had plenty of time before that day actually arrives.
But that time is running out.
Leaving is creeping up faster than I can fathom. It’s no longer an idea, but the here and now.
Watertown is my home, has been since I was 6 years old. Everyone and everything that I love is here.
But in 1 short month, I won’t be.
I’m getting on a plane and I won’t be back for 11 months.
Granting me the question – “Why do I have to leave when all I need is already around me?”
This is a question that Seth Barnes, the founder of the World Race, poses in his book Kingdom Journeys. (Go read it – it’s worth it.) I’ve used this book to piece together the answer.
“We go on a journey because he tells us to go…it can be the means God uses to show you your true self. It’s how God reshapes us…If we never get out of our comfort zones, we can’t grow into the places God has prepared for us…Away from the familiar, our hearts become a place where God can work, a place where only faith will sustain us…So perhaps, to find your true identity you need to abandon everything else…In order to experience life as it was meant to be lived, we must leave.
There is a kingdom to discover that will not come to you. To experience it for yourself you must leave. You must abandon. You must go.”
I must leave.
I have to leave because I need to find my true self.
Not the self that this world has shaped me into, but the self that God created me to be.
I must abandon.
If I stay here, in the comfort of my home in America, nothing will change.
I will continue on the path to the “American Dream,” but that is not what I was created for.
I must go.
I must go – to love others as Christ loves me.
I must go – to share with others the blessings that the Lord has bestowed on me.
I must go – to tell others about my risen Savior.
That is what I was created to do.
“God has a lifetime of adventures for you, but they won’t happen by accident. You have to make the decision to go. It’s up to you to take a chance, to risk security and comfort and leap into the unknown. Life may send a crisis, but when you’re trapped by comfort, only you can choose to leave.”
And that is exactly what I choose to do.
In the midst of the emotions – excitement, fear, sadness, and so much more – I choose to leave.
I choose to live the life God created for me, even when it breaks my heart.
What will you choose to leave behind in order to say “yes” to choosing Christ?
I’ve been sitting on this blog for a few weeks now. Hoping I wouldn’t end up having to share it, but God was persistent. It’s open and vulnerable and I’m not use to sharing those things with others. But it’s my heart. It’s where I am in this journey.
Thanks for being here with me along the way – reading, supporting, and praying.
Love, Kelsey
