“Don’t spend your time trying to figure out what the world needs. Find out what makes you come alive, because what the world needs is people who are alive.”
I first read this quote by John Eldridge when I was on a plane to Tanzania in the summer of 2002. I was just out of college and did not have a clue what I was going to do with my life. The only thing I knew is that without a shadow of a doubt I was supposed to go to Tanzania. So on the plane I decided to make a list of the things that make me come alive. I wrote:
Uniqueness in people and watching others come alive
Nature – and the Glimpses of Heaven around us
Prayer / Intercession
Worshiping God
Writing
Art – photography, painting, drawing
Experiencing Culture
Inspiring others to fall madly in love with their Beloved Lord!
People (I just love people)
Some things I will add to the list now would be:
Being in Africa (I have been three times now and every time I go I feel ALIVE)
Using my creativity to promote or inspire change, or hope
Restoring people and creation
Helping stop social injustices
Loving and serving the poor
Seeing this generation rise up and worship God with their lives
When God speaks to me
When God uses me to speak into others lives (prophetic)
When I see others hurting – I break and I know that is the Lord in me (compassion)
One of the leaders for our trip asked us these questions and I will attempt to answer them here.
Why are you doing this?
I am going on the WR because I want to live my life fully ALIVE and I want to leave all of the comforts of home to be Christ incarnate to the nations. I want to live in community and learn to live in simplicity. But, mostly the reason I am going is because I know this is what I am supposed to do, because God made it so evident.
What pilgrimage does God have you on?
I believe this pilgrimage is a necessary one. A starting over if you will. (selling our home, car, stuff and the things we have accumulated over the years – leaving it all behind) These things were getting in the way almost as if the world was telling us that we had arrived. But, Josh and I knew this was just to distract us. So, without all the junk we have been clinging on to Josh and I will be able to listen to God and follow his voice for our lives. We are taking a year to delve into the depths of the PRESENCE of the Lord and to learn to love as Christ loves and to know his love and presence like never before. I believe that through this next year and a half Joshua and I will know where in full-time missions to plant ourselves, or the vision God wants us to live out. And, I think after all of this rambling here the real pilgrimage is to leave our expectations behind and to let it be the pilgrimage God wants it to be. So the answer to the question is to be determined or “I DON’T KNOW YET!”
What if God has a completely different idea of what life He intends to draw out of you this year?
THEN GREAT! I want HIS vision for my life. And, I think that is the whole point of this pilgrimage. For him to reveal his life for us. For us to come fully ALIVE in him. And, I just will trust that God will answer the HOW question.
I know this next year will be a difficult one. I am sure there will be plenty of sleepless nights and plenty of tears. I am sure that I will see things that will break my heart. I am sure that I will be stretched in ways I have never felt before. I know it will be hard. But, it will all be worth it if God does the work he wants to do in me. I just pray that I will be so open to whatever it is HE wants. That I would continually lay all of my own selfish desires and ambitions at the feet of my Beloved, Jesus.
So, in the end, I am back to asking God that he would help me to be like Christ and “Break of myself and pour myself out for the restoration, healing and reconciliation of all creation.” – paraphrased from Rob Bell
