I'm moving to Switzerland in 2 weeks! You know that feeling you get when you wake up early in the morning on the day of a flight, those butterflies in your stomach and persistent anxiety that you're forgetting something important? Well, I've already been waking up with that feeling! I continually must remind myself that, not only do I still have plenty of time, but of course the Lord will take care everything. Matthew 6:33 continues to be a highly relevant theme: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you as well."
The question I'm asked at least once a day is, "Aren't you so excited?!" My reply is always somewhat choppy as I explain that of course I'm excited, but that excitement is also tempered with the reality that I'm leaving everyone and everything I know and love. I don't have the giddy excitement that comes before a vacation. This is my life, not a trip! But I do have the joy that comes from seeing the Lord work in my life and knowing that I'm walking the path He's prepared for me. And yes, I am excited about travelling and meeting new people and seeing new things and especially learning to speak French fluently.
I'm hoping that the anticipation of the great changes ahead of me is actually harder than the actual transitions will be. Right now the thought that I only get to teach my beloved 7th grade girls for one more Sunday brings tears to my eyes. And the look on my sister's face when she asks me if I'm really going to be gone as long as I said I would be frequently comes to mind. But once I'm in Switzerland, it won't be so much about what I left behind but about what's before me.
As I was running to Bush Park this morning, I began to compose a little speech for my going away party next week. The thing that came to me is that I want people to know I'm not leaving because of some inadequacy in my life here, because I'm looking for something, hoping to find myself, or needing to scratch the itch to travel. Jesus has given me a great life! I don't need to go anywhere else to find that. I leave, therefore, not out of emptiness but out of fullness. I go because ever since I heard that 3,000 people groups still do not have access to the Word of God in a language they understand my heart has been burdened to do something about it. The Spirit compels me to go.
Well, the clock is ticking, the countdown is on, so I must go busy myself with the many preparations to be made (ack, taxes!).
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