Growing up as a military kid, you’re pretty much taught to ignore stress. Moving every few years and meeting new friends? Yeah, that’s a breeze. I’ve recently found out that staying in one place is the hard part.
Since my family has been blessed enough to stay in Virginia (6 years and counting), my friends have quickly become my second family and I love being able to keep them without fear. Yeah, well God saw me and apparently decided that I was getting too comfortable, so he threw this thing at me called the World Race.
Shane Claiborne clearly wasn’t lying when he wrote, “God disturbs the comfortable.”
I fell in love with the adventure and joy that the World Race brings, but it quickly hit me that this meant leaving my friends that I had allowed myself to get so close to for another place, this time, for nine months. Would I be able to find friends like them on the trip? Would it be the same?
Well, news flash, Shane also wasn’t lying when he wrote, “God comforts the disturbed.”
Almost as fast as God threw the World Race at me, he threw me into a group chat with my squad mates and can I just tell you how wonderful they are?? How close I feel like we’ve already gotten?? (And there’s like 20 more people to come!! Ahh!!)
You barely even know them, you say? Ha!
I mean I do know that Shane gets annoyed because he is about to be leaving to be on his own for nine months, but his parents still have a time restriction on his computer and it disconnects from the internet at 10 pm (not cool when we’re on skype Mrs. Clardy!). Oh and Kendall, she’s really good a flipping scoops of ice cream through the air, because what else is there to do when working at an ice cream shop in the middle of the winter?? Kara and Callie, they love hiking, which is gonna be totally rad on our adventure days. And Noah, well it seems like he is always “ambulancing” around, he’s not injured or anything (that was our first guess), he’s just an EMT, but guys, don’t call him dad or he might push Shane into a river. Emma K is sick right now and enjoys making fun of herself, telling us all about her “Rudolph” nose, oh, and she loves Pentatonix. Don’t get her mixed up with Emma N, who does Best Buddies at her school which is like totally awesome and something we’re gonna get to bond about. Hailey just plain out rocks and is way ahead of us on her fundraising, which just makes us all jealous but hey we all still love her. Lydia is also like super cool and she did the polar plunge this winter, good news, she didn’t get hypothermia, but she did raise money for human trafficking which is totally spectacular.
I could go on and on but let me skip to the point that I am trying to make here… these people are super amazing and rad and I can’t believe I am getting the opportunity to live with them for nine months! I am so lucky and blessed beyond words, and knowing that we all get along so well is making this so much easier.
God doesn’t call for us to be comfortable or even content. Sure he wants us to be happy, but clearly we can be happy in “uncomfortable” situations. (I wouldn’t call it uncomfortable anymore, because I love my squad so much!!) He calls for us to trust in Him and in His plan, and when we do, wonderful things happen!
