what next?

-- Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go." {Isaiah 48:17} --

After an experience like interning in Africa, coming home can seem like a step backward. While I love seeing people who are close to me, I can't help but ask, what was it all for? Was it just an experience that I can look back on with fond memories of friendships, struggles, and growth? I have so many emotions raging through my mind and heart that sometimes I don't know how to keep them straight. (Okay I know I've only been home for three days... I mean, I still have jet lag)  Even so, I feel that I have gained such a global perspective. Not knowing my next step is daunting but if I learned anything through this journey it is that God works in ways I do not understand. I thought I knew this truth before -- but now I feel like I have lived with this reality displayed every day. 

My direction, my goals, my passions seem to have been reignited and redirected. I think sometimes when we are removed from what is familiar and comfortable, we become more in tune to the Lord and His voice. Taking a step back from the busyness of life and experiencing something altogether new was exactly what I needed. It is crazy how the little things that make up life can cause us to miss so much. There is such a difference between living life and living a full life. 

No matter how confusing life is, God holds it in His hand. 

I do not know where I have been called next, or where I will be in two years. What I do know, is that God has a plan designed to stretch, mold, and teach me. 

There are hurting people everywhere. In Africa, in South America, in my neighborhood, everywhere. I may not know exactly where my life is headed but I do know that I, like everyone who follows Christ, am called to make Him known. What does that look like? I am still discovering. 

-- For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” {Romans 10:13-15}  --

Life is an unpredictable mystery but that is what keeps it exciting. It also keeps us needing to continually trust the Lord for each step. He is there through every moment of the journey.