After months of planning, praying, and packing I am finally headed to launch in Atlanta. My flight just took off from Los Angeles and I am sitting here in awe of all the love and support I have received leading up to this trip. As the plane ascends I am struck with memories of family members pulling me aside for prayer, friends sending messages of support and coming to visit, and how the Lord has used those around me to encourage and lift me up. Some people have made the comment that I am brave to go on this trip. If I am brave, it is because of what I leave behind. The knowledge that I have so many people supporting me, praying for me, and who love me no matter where I go gives me courage. I am not alone. None of us really are.
I have always loved the genealogies in the Old Testament and Matthew 1. The lists of names remind me that I have a cheering section of past, present, and future family cheering me on as I pursue the Lord’s plan for my life and as I reach out to serve others. In this way, we are never really alone. We are loved, and we are blessed in ways we don’t always recognize.
I am blessed with amazing family and friends, parents who have made it their business to love their kids with everything they have, and I have had amazing opportunities to learn, work, and grow in the past few years. I now have the opportunity to take a step back, simplify, and give back.
In my junior year of high school I had to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau for one of my literature classes. In the book Thoreau reflects on his choice to simplify his life, move to the outskirts of town, and only buy the bare essentials for survival. One passage stuck with me and slips into my mind every so often: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.” I think about this a lot. What it would mean to live so simply that I would readily recognize the many ways I am blessed? What if everything we had were reduced to just the bare essentials? What would we miss? What would we find important?
I have written before about what it means to hold everything we have with an open hand–to be willing to accept or let go of anything we have at any moment and trust The Lord. For the first time I am learning what that really means. Everything comfortable and “normal” to my everyday life, I left back in LA. I have a forty pound backpack, and these words floating through my mind as I look at the clouds below: “Be brave. Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord, and be brave.”
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
I can’t wait to share this journey with all of you! Thank you for reading, and if you have any prayer requests or comments please post them below. It’s always encouraging to hear from you all. Also, if you want to sign up to receive blog updates you can enter your email in the “subscribe for blog updates” section on the left-hand column 🙂
God Bless,
Taryl
