And it was like :O

And then it was like 8D

Only then was it able to appreciate itself, and it’s role as a finger. It also stopped bugging the fool out of all the other members who had been telling it all along that it was a finger and not an arm.

And before it lived happily ever after, it spent a good amount of time learning how to use it’s fingerly strengths and abilities that had gone neglected while it had been trying to be an arm. It lived a good and fruitful life in the freedom of being the member it was made to be.

The End

This is an excerpt from an attempted blog post, which was originally about Living a Traveler’s Lifestyle. My first attempt sounded rather like a college assignment, and the second attempt resulted in a rather dramatic telling of personal life struggles and victories. Ah, what would it be, to have the gift of balance?

Looking over both attempts at my post, I noticed a tragic lack of God’s truth in my questions and reasonings. Reconsidering the whole mess from a better perspective, something else snapped into understanding for me. I’ve been wrestling with a ‘faith block’. Not on a grand scale, but in the little things. How can a person trust God to have given His perfect Son to save their soul, but can’t bring themselves to trust Him in the random little things? How can you have faith for eternity but not for the moment?

To summarize my long-winded attempt at the “traveler’s lifestyle” post; I’ve discovered that I’m currently living the life I’ve believed I should want and be satisfied with, while my heart is withering away inside me despite my attempts to convince it that big dreams and whimsical adventures are too big and indefinite and impractical. My heart’s response to this is “EXACTLY!!” and I’d just keep arguing back. The real discovery here is that I’ve been living as the person I’ve believed I should be, and stifling the desires and strengths of the person I really am. Let me tell you, there is such liberation in accepting yourself as you are.

As I was pondering this new self acceptance, the realization dawned on me, that maybe my ‘faith block’ is because I’ve been trying to draw near to God as the person I thought I had to be, and I wouldn’t let go of it when God would work in me to strip it away, instead shrinking back from Him and not able to get any closer. This was one of those realizations that practically counts as a decision, because its so definitely true. He is so good. He waits for you, for when He knows the time is right, but it doesn’t stop Him from loving you the whole way, even during the times you are rejecting Him. Draw near to Him, beloved, and He will draw near to you.

My resolution to remind myself of this new direction (and my original point from the beginning) is to completely change my lifestyle, adopting the lifestyle of a traveller. What this means to me is living with fewer possessions, less vanity, and less entitlement. And of course, traveling more. Not that I will never settle into a home, but that I will place less value on securing a comfortable ‘nest’ full of possessions and security. Just like the Israelites lived as nomads in tents as a reminder of the promised land, I want to ‘travel light’ through life as a reminder not to settle for comfort, and not to be anything less or different than what I’m meant to be. I have yet to discover exactly what that entails, but I am now on my way!

(Garage sale, anyone?)

It’s like my soul is flying though my feet are on the ground

Washed by the sun

Dried by the rain

If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it

I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing

For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?

For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Now faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen.

To have found God and still peruse Him is the soul’s paradox of love.

I’m finding everything I’ll ever need, by giving up being everything.

“In Better Hands” by Natalie Grant, ”Always” by Newsboys, Quote by Toni Morrison, Quote by Hillel, Romans 8:24, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Hebrews 11:1, The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer, “Forever” David Crowder Band.