A Glorious Unfolding

I have to laugh sometimes at the way life plays itself out. 

Who can say when my desire to see all of this earth I can ignited? Fascination with the world and all it's cultures has been there for as long as I can remember. 

People. They are everywhere (obviously, but really.). I love nature, I do. That breath-taking moment; you reach a clearing on an uphill trek, get a glimpse through thick trees and there before you lies sheer beauty. But people, oh my goodness. For all nature's glorious beauty I can't seem to compare it to people. The face of an age-worn smiling Indian woman, the ivory-toothed smile of a laughing African child, even the deepest, somber eyes of a long-forgotten beggar; a masterpiece. 

I used to read books about missionaries and feel like an utter failure. To do something "big for God" (which to me at the time meant forsaking any and every comfort and being an obvious force on the front lines of evangelism) had to mean international missions... Right? Ha! Who told us that? Is it not the greatest thing we can ever "do for God" to just love Him and love people? It's no longer for an identity that I seek to see the world. It is sheer availability fired on by incredible opportunity and curiosity.

I'm sixteen years old and in less than 2 months I'll be stepping foot in Asia, the 4th continent I'll have walked on in almost exactly 1 year. I wouldn't exactly say this is a generational thing. No one in my immediate or even closely extended family has hardly ever been abroad, and it wasn't until just 2 months ago my parents got passports so the two of them and I could go to Europe. People keep asking me "How do you travel so much?" Truly, I have just determined in my heart to follow Jesus for my whole life and what I assumed would be a monotonous, predictable life has turned into the greatest adventure.

This is my story. Little piece by piece, my messy, tiring, exhilarating, unpredictable, grace-filled life unfolds and slowly I'm learning that loving people is of far greater importance than the love of "my adventure". It's all just an authentic mess, and although this all may be the face of my life, real life takes place behind the face. 

Should the most stationary reader, the nesting mother whom I admire SO much, the curious grandfather who thinks his adventure is past, even the thirteen year old girl doing exactly what I was doing just a few short years ago, be reading this in disappointment for their own "uninteresting life" I must preface anything to come with "live where you are". Just be. My prayer is that I could somehow give eyes to those who, like me, seek a greater picture of life and humanity, and that within these words you could see some of the same faces that I do. 

A sojourn is simply "a temporary stay". And are we not all doing that?