{"id":40,"date":"2011-07-25T17:23:49","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T17:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simplymeandjeans.wordpress.com\/?p=40"},"modified":"2011-07-25T17:23:49","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T17:23:49","slug":"wanderlust-with-a-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/?p=40","title":{"rendered":"Wanderlust With a Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God”<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 William Carey<\/p>\n

My 20 year old daughter is in Wyoming’s Wind River Range on a 40 day backpacking trip with Solid Rock Outdoor Ministries. \u00a0There’s no phone service and sending or receiving letters is sporadic. \u00a0 Carrying a 50 pound backpack on a 120 mile journey, \u00a0not taking a shower and dealing with rain and \u00a0mosquitos \u00a0for over a month leaves most people speechless as to why, exactly, she is doing this. \u00a0I’ve found that explaining the certifications she will receive, \u00a0the degree that she is getting, her love of adventure, the absolute beauty and peace of God’s creation, \u00a0the training that will enable her to lead groups to other areas of the world or the spiritual aspect of it all doesn’t seem to clarify anything. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like me, my daughter has wanderlust – but it’s a wanderlust with a purpose and it’s made me think a lot about my faith lately.<\/p>\n

Most people my age and older really struggle with this generation and their need to travel. \u00a0I think it has to do with our sense of \u00a0responsibility as well as our idea of what success is. (It may have to do with the fact that we didn’t get to do it.) \u00a0After all, \u00a0the majority of our lives looked something like this: \u00a0graduate from High School, get a college degree or some sort of training, \u00a0get a job, get married, have kids and save for retirement. \u00a0Don’t misunderstand me. \u00a0I believe that many of the younger generation need to learn \u00a0a whole lot about responsibility and working hard but for those students that I have the privilege of knowing…their desire to travel is about much more than fun.<\/p>\n

One of my \u00a0friends sent her daughter across the country to a discipleship training school. \u00a0She spent a month in the devastated areas of Haiti praying, working and loving people. \u00a0Another friend’s son and daughter-in-law spent the last year working and living on the bare minimum so that they could give away all that they own, fly to hurting areas of the world and be God’s hands and feet to people they have never met but have a deep love for. \u00a0 Another friend just put her daughter on a plane to Taiwan to do the same thing for three weeks. \u00a0 \u00a0Three young men \u00a0simply bought a ticket to India and plan to follow God’s leading as they travel and minister to the needs of people they come in contact with. \u00a0 A beautiful young woman spent over a week in Joplin, Missouri helping victims of the horrible tornado there. \u00a0Her best friend travels to Guatemala each summer on a medical mission as she trains to be a nurse. \u00a0A group of college students traveled to India to help an organization that rescues girls from slave trafficking . \u00a0The stories are endless.<\/p>\n

The thing that has made me examine my faith is the response I so often hear from parents. \u00a0“How can you let them do that? \u00a0It’s not safe.” \u00a0I struggle with those thoughts. \u00a0What parent wants to think of their child in danger? But the simple truth is that we weren’t meant to live safe lives. \u00a0 Blindly jumping into a dangerous situation isn’t wise but neither is avoiding a call on ones life because it may be uncomfortable. \u00a0God is stretching my faith as I become the mom of young adults. \u00a0Part of me is envious of the things they are getting to do and the passion that they have found for God’s mission in the world. \u00a0Part of me wants them to settle down, buy a house and have a great 401K. \u00a0And yet another part recognizes that my generation and our preoccupation with comfort has not done the world all that much good. \u00a0 \u00a0 This generation lives in a global society and they are much more aware of the tragedy and need around them. \u00a0I’m touched by their compassionate hearts. \u00a0I applaud the efforts of young people just to do something. \u00a0Anything! \u00a0I think i can learn something from them and, the exciting thing is, \u00a0I’m at a stage of life in which I can actually act on it.<\/p>\n

I’m pretty sure that \u00a0Moses didn’t feel safe when he walked back to Egypt, as a fugitive, to attempt the crazy mission God had given him. \u00a0Paul probably didn’t feel safe \u00a0after the first town that tried to stone him to death. \u00a0 Jim Elliott definitely wasn’t safe when he was murdered trying to befriend Indians in Ecuador. \u00a0The amazing thing is that all of these men, and thousands more, \u00a0have made huge impacts on the world because their safety wasn’t their first concern. \u00a0God’s love for people motivated them and His grace carried them. \u00a0 They expected God to do great things and they simply wanted to be involved. \u00a0I think that characterizes many of this generation and I’m so very proud. \u00a0Walking by faith. \u00a0That’s going to be a long journey for me but I expect that God and I will see some amazing sights along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all t\"Haley<\/a>hose who wander are lost.\u201d \u2013\u00a0J. R. R. Tolkien<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God”\u00a0\u2014 William Carey My 20 year old daughter is in Wyoming’s Wind River Range on a 40 day backpacking trip with Solid Rock Outdoor Ministries. \u00a0There’s no phone service and sending or receiving letters is sporadic. \u00a0 Carrying a 50 pound backpack on a 120 mile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[87,182,199,305,364,444,503,589,612],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-family","tag-church","tag-faith","tag-fernweh","tag-jesus","tag-minister","tag-purpose","tag-serve","tag-travel","tag-wanderlust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}