Listen. Not metaphorically to what I’ve written here but actually to what’s going on around you right now. Redeem a moment from the idolatrous urge to rush ahead and just breathe.
What do you think you’re hurrying towards anyway? Everything that needs to happen will work out if and when it needs to. Time’s even pace always continues, never hesitant and never rushed, and its rhythm of grace will comfort you if you let it.
Breath in eternal trust and exhale the moment that is now. Plant your feet on the earth and set your course by the stars. The beauty of life is not something you can count with numbers or fit in a box no matter how many wires are attached to it, how many lights it has, or how often it beeps or buzzes–although the numbers and boxes can be beautiful too, if they join in with the rest of life’s dance. Not even they can tame life’s unpredictability or spur forward its strong, steady, ambling pace.
Breath in energy and exhale rest. The God whose rule guides the stars and whose faithful rain whispers life to seeds planted in dirt knows how many hairs are on the head of each mountain goat, sea otter, and human child. Including you.
So listen with your heart open and don’t rush by the people whose lives God has woven together with yours. Where do you think you’re going, anyway?
(Sorry this isn’t really about my life in Nepal, but this is definitely something I’ve been learning here as a foreigner and as a young person thinking about life-direction decisions. Packing up and going to a new place gives you a chance to decide what is really important enough to keep with you, and leaving behind old habits and ways of doing things makes you wonder why you really do anything at all. I think the answers have a lot to do with people, relationships, creation, and the Creator, but if you ever ask yourself similar sorts of questions, I’d love to hear how you look for answers or remember the ones you’ve found! Comments or other messages are always welcome!)
Confessions of a Stranger 