An Unexpected (Or Not So Unexpected) Journey

When I was a kid, I wanted to have an adventure.

I didn’t know exactly what that adventure would look like.  But I knew it looked something like the many books I poured over, and less like my everyday life going to school.  I knew there would be daring and intrigue and mystery, and people that needed help.  It would take place far away from middle class America, somewhere like the Thailand or Nigeria of my mom’s childhood stories, or the India and China of my favorite missionary biographies.  It would involve DOING THINGS, with definitely no sitting around at a desk all day, trying to hide from the teacher that I was reading yet another book.

I think most people want to have an adventure.  But the funny thing about adventures is, they aren’t “all pony rides in May sunshine” as JRR Tolkien wrote.

As of this writing, I have been to places as far as Myanmar and Nepal, and as close as my own city.  I have served, loved, learned, and laughed with so many different people.  And I have learned that, in the end, I am not the author of my life.

Someone else is the orchestrator of my story, and He has a far better plan than anything I could possibly have imagined when I was a nine-year-old playing “orphanage” with my dolls, or dreaming of travel to fantastic destinations.  He has been there for every joy, heartache, confused rant, and moment in between.

And now, He is calling me to another adventure.

In May 2018, I walked across a stage and was handed a rolled-up piece of paper, declaring that I have completed my education at Liberty University.  I still have student teaching, but for all intents and purposes, I have finished college.  Now comes…adulting.

*AHHHHHHHH!  RUN IN HORROR!!!*

(My thoughts on that phrase/the mentality behind it may come later…)

I have seven weeks of student teaching in America, and then another seven weeks in Thailand, where I have been hired as an ESL teacher for 2nd and 3rd graders.

On one hand, this is everything I’ve been dreaming of for over a decade.  On the other…well, I can’t stop thinking of another quote from something Tolkien related.

Gandalf: “You’ll have a tale or two to tell yourself when you come back.”

Bilbo: “Can you promise that I will come back?”

Gandalf: “…no.  And if you do, you will not be the same.”

Life has taught me that Gandalf is exactly right.  Big experiences change us.  Adventures take us out of our very comfortable lives, and until we are on the brink of adventure, we often don’t realize how good our lives are.

A ship in harbor is safe.  But that’s not what ships were built for.

So as I head out on my “maiden voyage,” I hope you’ll join me.  I hope my thoughts and experiences can be an encouragement, challenge, or just a good laugh for you.  And I hope that along the way we can all catch a glimpse of how God is glorified in the crazy, beautiful, heartbreaking, amazing lives of His people.

I guess I can say that, for the next however long…

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Posts should be  at least bi-monthly, with varying themes.  Hope to see you there!