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The Beautiful Mystery of Tension

September 30, 2011 in Deep Thinking, Just Life, Missions

It’s been just over three months since I got back from China. That trip was the first time I’d been out of the states since my junior year of college. (Entirely too long!!) And my first trip that wasn’t just traveling. It was traveling with purpose. I went because not going didn’t seem like an option.

Coming back home was nothing like I thought it would be & everything like my friends warned me it would be :) Endless questions. Processing that seems to simply spin me in circles. And an aching in my heart to go back. When I say I want, with everything that I am, to be here in Nashville doing exactly what I’m doing, & at the same time that I want, with everything that I am, to be “there”…somewhere on the other side of the world simply loving on people, I mean it. I know that may sound impossible, but it’s the best explanation I’ve got.

Being back home means living in the tension between here & there. Between community & justice. Between comfort & risk. It means loving what I get to do for a living  my heart is breaking because I see the faces of those still in the darkness of unbelief flashing through my mind.

How does one live in this tension? What does that look like? I don’t know. I still ask myself that question every day. But in the meantime, I’ve learned to try and embrace it…most of the time. God gently refocuses me & reminds me that it’s not about me, about my processing, my time, my not understanding.

No, it’s all about Him. His plan. His time. His grace. His knowledge. His purpose. I’m learning that sometimes in order to prepare my heart for what He has next for me He may need to plant some questions..ignite some mystery. And if there’s anything tension does, it’s ignite mystery. A mystery that if I’m just willing to have a little patience, can be quite beautiful.

Have you learned to fight beauty in the mystery of tension?

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Just Go

August 29, 2011 in Just Life, Missions

“What if we identified where God was moving & joined him?” That was a question Jamie posed my first Sunday at Journey after moving to Nashville exactly a year ago today. And that question has been in the back of my mind ever since.

I think sometimes we make it too complicated. God is always working which means there is always something for us to join Him in. Unfortunately I think we spend so much time trying to make our own dreams or projects into His will that we miss thousands of opportunities He has for us to join Him in the incredible things He is already doing.

When God says, “go,” go! Stop analyzing. Stop trying to be sure. Just go. And if He hasn’t said “go here,” then look at where He’s working & join Him. Because the truth is, we’ve already been given to the command to go. All of us. Go may mean across the world, it may mean across the country, or it may mean just across the street or even across the room. It’s all going.

Either way, I think most of the time it really is that simple. Just go.

 

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One Simple Question

August 8, 2011 in Deep Thinking, Just Life, Missions

I was listening to a missionary give a talk recently & he asked a simple question that has been haunting me since: “Have you put your ‘yes’ on the table?”

He had just gotten done talking about how all God asks is that we put our “yes” on the table. Fully on the table. And then we’ve got to walk away. We can’t stand next to it with one finger on the corner of the paper waiting to pull it back if the conditions aren’t comfortable. We can’t stand off to the side ready to sprint to the table if the timing isn’t what we wanted.

My conviction in that one simple question? I’ve put my yes on the table but I haven’t walked away. It’s still on my terms. And while nothing is impossible for God to work through, He’s asking for my full, complete, unhindered “yes.” And, He deserves that.

I’ve learned that sometimes it’s not about going. It’s about being willing to go. Willing to leave it all behind. To walk away from the known & into the unknown “yes” that God has for you.

Have you put your “yes” on the table?

 

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Throwback Sundays…Needs No Words

February 13, 2011 in Just Life, Missions

My heart has been breaking for all of Asia over the last three months. Breaking in ways that are bigger than me…beyond my control.

This little boy’s face has been at the forefront of my mind since I met him in Memphis this last July. I believe he is from Burma.

Today, my heart is breaking for him.

You can read my first post about this little boy here.

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Because I Love Sharing Stories

January 10, 2011 in Missions

For most of my life, Asia wasn’t a place I wanted to visit. In fact, if I’m completely honest, it was a place that I had a lot of negative stereotypes about in my head. I lived in a dorm in high school along with about a hundred students from all across Asia. A few of them became very dear friends, but most of them drove me absolutely crazy at age 15.

So, the fact that God has been breaking my heart for that part of His world over the last 6 months or so is quite comical to me. It’s completely His way. And I love that.

In February a few people from my church, people I am honored to call friends, are headed over to Thailand. My heart and prayers will be going with them and I want to share their story with you. Because one of my favorite things in life is seeing how God uses people for His Kingdom purpose, especially when those people are my friends. And I love love love sharing those stories with others.

But, they can tell their story much better than I, so take a minute and watch the video:

The Story of Journey & Thailand from grateful inconvenience on Vimeo.

Please keep them in your prayers. If you want to be a part of their story…of God’s story in Asia, you can donate here

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