Welp, I have been in the USA for just over 2 weeks. The excitement has settled down a bit and reality has begun to hit. It is hard to describe how I feel, because it is still hard to believe that that 11 months really happened. I am supposed to act like this totally changed and new person but I don’t really feel that different. So now I think,
“Well that was cool. Now what??”
Will I constantly be living for the next big thing? Will I always feel this anxious? I think this was a bad habit I picked up on the World Race. I was constantly excited and ready for the next month; the next country; the next culture/food; the next contacts/ministry. How often I forgot to enjoy and live in the moment! And here I am in America, doing the same thing!
But then I took some time to sit with the Lord.
Pray.
Read His word.
Journal this out.
And I realized something. It is part of the Lord’s design that I am not content here. In a way, I will always be anxious for the next big thing, because I was not made for this earth! Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that, “He has set eternity in my heart.” Hebrews 13:14 says that “we do not have an enduring city here, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”
However, this does not give me an excuse to live in anxiety or laziness. Ecclesiastes also says that everything here on earth is a gift from Him. In Hebrews 6 we are told that God will not forget our work and love that we invest. We are to continue loving and helping others. We are to show the same diligence in day-to-day life as we do in “radical years of abandonment” and we are not to become lazy. Rather, we are to imitate those who live by faith and in patience. Ohh, patience. How difficult it can be to wait for the Lord’s timing.
But, oh, if we do! We will inherit what He promised! (Which I am pretty sure will be better than anything we can experience on this earth.) “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” (Hebrews 6:19a)
And so, I am once again humbled and reminded to enjoy today and be faithful in the small things. I am choosing to have a mindset of thankfulness: thankful for this past, incredible year; thankful for now and the sweet time and place I have to wait on the Lord; and thankful for the future, because I know the One Who holds it in His hands.
“Well that was cool. Now what??”
Will I constantly be living for the next big thing? Will I always feel this anxious? I think this was a bad habit I picked up on the World Race. I was constantly excited and ready for the next month; the next country; the next culture/food; the next contacts/ministry. How often I forgot to enjoy and live in the moment! And here I am in America, doing the same thing!
But then I took some time to sit with the Lord.
Pray.
Read His word.
Journal this out.
And I realized something. It is part of the Lord’s design that I am not content here. In a way, I will always be anxious for the next big thing, because I was not made for this earth! Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that, “He has set eternity in my heart.” Hebrews 13:14 says that “we do not have an enduring city here, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”
However, this does not give me an excuse to live in anxiety or laziness. Ecclesiastes also says that everything here on earth is a gift from Him. In Hebrews 6 we are told that God will not forget our work and love that we invest. We are to continue loving and helping others. We are to show the same diligence in day-to-day life as we do in “radical years of abandonment” and we are not to become lazy. Rather, we are to imitate those who live by faith and in patience. Ohh, patience. How difficult it can be to wait for the Lord’s timing.
But, oh, if we do! We will inherit what He promised! (Which I am pretty sure will be better than anything we can experience on this earth.) “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” (Hebrews 6:19a)
And so, I am once again humbled and reminded to enjoy today and be faithful in the small things. I am choosing to have a mindset of thankfulness: thankful for this past, incredible year; thankful for now and the sweet time and place I have to wait on the Lord; and thankful for the future, because I know the One Who holds it in His hands.
Learning to be faithful in the small things in each continent:
Month1. Ecuador…the Lord told me to be patient and faithful in the small things…each little rock at a time.
Faithful in the small things, Romania edition. Painting and brushing gates in freezing weather
Swaziland, working the garden with limited tools. Faithful in the small things, Africa style
Learning to be faithful with these small children's lives in Cambodia. they will continue reaching them, no matter how many kids show up.
