Sometimes it's just not that easy... part 1

So I don't have a lot of time to write right now...  I have to leave for work in about 45 minutes, which means getting ready in about 30 minutes.  But I had to start this...

Back story:

I'm an Bible major with a concentration in Missions.  That's what my transcript says at least...  I am a BA; I like to think I'm both the academic and the street kinds of BA, but that could be debatable.

I have wonderful, loving parents who have introduced me and taught me about mission work all around the globe from an early age.  They have both lived outside the country for a time, prior to meeting each other, for work-related reasons, but I think that really helped their scope of mission work as well.

I've visited other cultures since I was 14, and have learned about working in other cultures since before I can remember.  I've been outside the country 9 different times, visiting 7 different countries.

My plan for life was live oversees.  It still is, actually, eventually, hopefully.  I want to go back to at least 3 of the countries I've visited and stay for a few months.  And I want to see so many more.  My BIG dream is to visit every single country.  I want to live in New Zealand for a while.

You know the book made into a movie Eat Pray Love?  First of all, read the book, it's ALWAYS better.  Second of all, watch the film - Julia Roberts deserves her accolades.  Anyway, I really envy Elizabeth's (the author) life.  To travel for a living?  To take a year long sabbatical to help clear her mind, heart, and soul?  Now I wouldn't want to write about it all; I'm not a writer (ironic since I have a blog, but if you look, I don't really write on here a lot - i.e. at all).  But anyway, I'll tie this in later.

So then, a few years back, I lived in this community in Knoxville.  That's a story for another time and place, but this one event is significant.  A friend of one of the community members is a prophet.  Take that for what you will, but he was wise and quite insightful.  Now I was really trying to not be a part of it.  I made myself busy in the kitchen; we had like 20 people over - dishes add up fast (I sound like Martha...).  But in the end, the other core community members brought him to me and thought it was important that I hear what he has to say.  So I did.

You know what that man told me?!?!  He said that God was showing him a stake in the ground, like a tent stake.  That then the winds came, I needed to stayed grounded, stay still.  I needed to stay steady and stay put.  Now not all of that were his exact words (it was a few years back - I'm lucky to remember last week), but that's the idea.

SAY WHAT?!?!  No.  HA.  I travel.  That's what I do; that's who I am.  As I'm writing this, I haven't been out of the country in 3 years and it's KILLING me!  Figuratively of course; that's really an awful saying.  It PAINS me - much better.

A stake in the ground, like a tent stake.  I mean, I've stayed in Knoxville, slightly against my wishes.

But as my friend Mr. Bob likes to remind me, I move around a lot.  I'm living in my 4th house in 4 years since college.  Now I've been at the same Church, mostly, since after college, but in college, especially when I didn't have a car, I would go where people were willing to give me rides to.  I left the Church I had been attending since college for a little while, but ended up back there.  I help at another Church one Sunday a month though, and am looking at checking out a Church in my neighborhood, because they do awesome things for the community and I really want to see this neighborhood be seen as amazing as I know it to be (let's just say it has a bad rep. and leave it at that).  This is my second time in this neighborhood though, so I came back...  The community lived a few blocks from my current house.  I left the community after 5 or 6 months, and the rest disbanded 6 or 7 months later.  All that to stay, I'm not like a tent stake at all.

That brings us to today.  When Alan Bradford had the nerve to use Jeremiah 29:1-7 as part of his sermon.  (I love the Bradfords, by the way - awesome family!  Susan, Alan's wife, was one of my small group leaders before they even came to our Church.  Much love for them.)

Ok, we're almost at the 45 minute mark when I have to leave, and I haven't even gotten ready.  So I'm going to leave you with the text of Jeremiah 29:1-7 and come back to all this later.

Jeremiah 29:1-7

The Message (MSG)

Jeremiah 29

Plans to Give You the Future You Hope For

 ^1-2 This is the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to what was left of the elders among the exiles, to the priests and prophets and all the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem, including King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the government leaders, and all the skilled laborers and craftsmen. ³The letter was carried by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said:
 ⁴This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God, to all the exiles I've taken from Jerusalem to Babylon:
 ⁵"Build houses and make yourselves at home. "Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country.⁶"Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so that you'll thrive in that country and not waste away. ⁷"Make yourselves at home there and work for the country's welfare. "Pray for Babylon's well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you."