You know those really strong urges that you can’t not give into? The ones that grip you, fill your thoughts, lurk always at the back of your mind until someone, something brings it to the forefront, making it utterly impossible to get off your mind? Those inexplicable, illogical, unshakable desires to do something totally irrational?
I don’t. Well, I didn’t. I can pretty much logic myself out of any emotion if I choose to. I could talk myself down from the highest high and I could bring myself up from the lowest low with a healthy dose of logic.
I’m like a really good buffer, but for emotion, not pH. I’m also kind of a science nerd, because I just said that.
A couple of springs ago, my logical nature failed me. In a cute little café in downtown Boise, my parents told me about someone doing the World Race. I just threw out the idea of taking a year off after undergrad before going to naturopathic medicine school, really expecting them to be parents and say “no, that’s silly and illogical,” because honestly that’s what I was thinking. I had forgotten that my parents are super dope and adventurous, though, and they were pretty gung-ho about it. I wanted adventure, but I think I wanted it pretty selfishly. I wanted to see the world for myself. I wanted to have rad experiences for myself.
When I got back to #dooley134 I casually looked up the World Race. I’ll spare you the details, but I responded in ways that I don’t respond to hardly anything. I was a bundle of emotions and I knew without a doubt that taking a year off was going to be about a lot more than my own enjoyment.
So next August I’m leaving the United States for 11 months to serve alongside missionaries, organizations, schools, orphanages, etc. in 11 different countries.
The more real this journey becomes, the more illogical it seems. I could list about 5 kabillion things that make more sense to me to do with a year off, but I’ve realized that though God made me an incredibly logical being, if He wants to get my attention, He probably won’t communicate with me through logic. Logical, right?
But here’s the cool thing. The things about this that are illogical to me are only illogical in comparison with our culture. Christ is pretty counter-cultural, though, and according to His life, this is super ultra logical. So maybe I’ll embrace a little less of my limiting logic and lean into Jesus’ logic a little more. Life sounds more exciting that way.I’m going to learn a lot on this journey, and I think I’m already learning my first lesson and that is REALLY exciting.
