I have never been a kid who wanted to stay home. I think you could tell that from a very young age I was never going to stay put and I was going to pursue big adventures. I always wanted to know more, love harder, and seek deeper. I like being challenged and I like being forced to grow, and I know that those things are hard to find when you stay in one place.
It’s not always easy being away from home. It is filled with people who have sacrificed a lot to help mold me into the person that I am. There’s a lot of love there. A lot of hurt, too, but, a lot of love. It’s comfortable, it’s small, and I know everything.
I also know that I’m not meant to be there.
Each Gospel tells us stories of how Jesus’s disciples were hand-picked, and I have found solace in how the first disciples chose Jesus. It makes my heart feel a little more known and it further encourages me that I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing with my life, even though I leave a lot of places and a lot of people.
Mark 1:17-18, “Jesus called out to them, ‘Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!’ And they left their nets at once and followed him. (20) He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men.” You guys. They literally left their lives as they were to follow the Son. They believed so hard that they didn’t pack up their things and they didn’t even say goodbye. They left their own father in a boat and never thought twice about seeing him again.
It seems to be a trend throughout my life that each time I move further from home, I find more comfort in myself. I’m being stretched, challenged, and ultimately, growing closer to Christ. I’m growing closer to the woman that He created me to be. Home is not where I was born or where my family lives. Home is in Christ who lives in me. Home is in heaven where I’m working all over the world to get more people there.
This is why I chose the World Race – because I have been chosen to heal, speak, and build where that work can’t be done at home living a life of comfort. I’m choosing to be disconnected, discontent, and under privileged, because that is the only way that our hearts can change sometimes – when everything is stripped from us. When we’re away from our temporary homes and working for our heavenly one.
