Tuesday, July 24, 2012

An American Week

Dear friends,

It's hard to believe I've been home for a week! Well, I have jumped all over the place a bit, from Chicago, to Fishers, to the lake, to Bloomington. The rising sun found me in Alabama this morning, but this is good for my nomad soul. The point is that for a week now, I have not been in my beloved Ecuador.

I still feel like I am adjusting a bit to being back. I don't really like the concept of home in general, at least not in reference to any place in this world. I find emotional ties to physical places to be a bit strangling, and thus try to avoid them. This summer I have failed in this area. As our plane took off from Guayaquil, I felt a deep sinking inside me. A lot of that was due to my good friend science. However, some of it was due to my heart tugging me towards Guayaquil, resisting the forces causing me to leave.

Sometimes I look at the woven Ecuador bracelet on my wrist and catch myself thinking that there is no place I'd rather be. When I take a moment to really consider, I find that my ideal location is not dependent on geography.

As David says, "You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever." He pleads, "Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings" and declares "I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake."

That is home, to be in the presence, right hand, eye, and shadow of my Creator. I've spent a lot of time in my life trying to figure out where to go or what to do, but everywhere I've gone, I've found that my Savior is there. "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?[...] If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me."

It is impossible to escape the one who indwells me. How beautiful it is to live a life wandering and exploring this earth while resting at the right hand of the throne of the Todopoderoso, the Almighty.

I live in confidence that this whole life is a short term mission trip. I get to enjoy different cultures, different people, and different foods. I get to give my whole heart in laboring for the Lord with enthusiasm. I get to speak truth, to pour into people, and to love well. And at the end of it all, I get to go to the place I will be able to call home emphatically and without cringing.

"Behold, I am making all things new," declares the One on the throne. And in this newness, where "He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them," and if that were not enough, where "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain" when "the first things have passed away (Revelation 21)."

No matter where morning finds me, I can awake fully satisfied in the Lord, and in the hope of someday going home. Where else would I ever want to be?

On the road, physically and spiritually,

Jenna B.

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