“I slip into a world of uncharted territories almost silently with a note from a roommate, an email from a mentor, encouragement from a friend and an airline ticket tucked into my small carry-on. I fixate on the 27-minute layover and the lack of a true suit so that I will not have to consider the myriad of opportunities before me that taunt me with their appeals and their drawbacks. I want options, but I fear them. I long for choices but dread the decisions that they’ll force me to make.
I’m on a plane that is taking off (I mean, literally, that’s where I’m sitting). But I realize as we speed down the runway that my life is a lot like a lift-off right now. I cautiously made my way away from the gate, feeling the independence increase throughout my years in college. Then, taxiing to the runway I realize that I was not created for land, will never be satisfied cruising the airport, wheels safely grounded. And yet, the ground is safe. It is solid and I am secure. And I am reminded of the line from the children’s book The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe: ‘Is he safe? No, He isn’t safe, but He is good.’ That’s the One I trust – the Good One. I trust Him because He is good and He promises that His plans for me are too. But taxiing up to this runway is frightening when I look at the ground – the ground I’ll leave. As soon as I look up, though, I find excitement even in the fear. I am called to be courageous in the Lord, with the Lord, not of my own strength. And I close my eyes to pray.The plane lifted (again, I mean literally, the flight I’m on took off). The destination is key – the pilot knows where we’ll end up. He knows how we’ll get there. But for the split second when the wheels lift and the wings take control, the destination matters little to me. I just don’t want to crash back down to earth.
Returning to my circumstance, I do care about where I’m going, how I’ll get there. But I know the Lord knows these things. And for this moment, all I really care about is lifting off, feeling my wings take over for my wheels, and not crashing back to earth.”
I wrote that in March, 2008 – two months before my college graduation. It is amazing the speed with which we take flight, really, and the excitement, and the feelings of importance. And it is amazing how in this first year out of school, much of that excitement has faded into something little more than daily acceptance of the tasks associated with being employed and being independent.
And I don’t think I’m the only one who’s feeling this way. And I don’t think it’s because I’m single. And I don’t think it’s because I’m young. I think we’ve all lost some of that spirit we had when we started, and we’re longing to get it back. So this blog is an attempt to recapture some of that spirit. I am almost certain that the tasks we see as mundane are important, that the conversations we see as standard can be meaningful, that the lives we lead can have significance. We are created after all by a God who doesn’t like to be bored. And we are created in His image, so He knows we don’t like to be bored either. I think we may just have to dare to look a little deeper and to accept the Lord’s invitation into a life that’s just a little more exciting that we might have thought (even if absolutely nothing in our circumstances changes).
