There's No Place Like...Somewhere Else

Two weeks ago, we said good-bye to a young missionary about to embark on an adventure in Brazil. Sound familiar? My sister, Cris, followed in my parents' footsteps by moving far away to rediscover her Brazilian roots and teach people about Jesus. And, my guess is, learn A LOT about Jesus as well (for anyone who's interested in reading her tales, check out crisinbrazil.blogspot.com). As I stood at the airport, saying a tearful good-bye, I realized how hard it is to be the one being left behind. I've rarely, if ever, been that person-- I'm usually the one tearfully saying good-bye, hopping on the plane, and finding that my tears are mostly dry by the time I'm over the nearest major ocean. Mark's always been the "leaver" too, so we're now getting to experience the other side of things.
And it's awful! While your counterpart gets to flash her passport and enter a new, exciting, colorful land, you're stuck in the same old, same old place. Even if it's a place where you have family, friends, and a job you love! It all starts to seem a little drab. My inability to be completely content where I am--or, to put it differently, my constant desire to go somewhere else and try something else-- really became clear to me after another recent episode.
We recently watched a documentary entitled "God Grew Tired of Us," which tells the story of several of the Lost Boys of the Sudan as they journey from Kakuma Refugee Camp to begin a new life in New York. I had read the book by the same title this summer (in my Summer of Sudan, as it turned out...there are SO MANY good books about refugees out there, especially about the Lost Boys!) In fact, I read several books about the Lost Boys and other refugees this summer, back when working with refugees was something I really hoped I'd get to do someday. And now I do! So what was my reaction to this documentary? Did I smile smugly and think "yes, that is indeed what refugee resettlement is like" ? Did I get angry because the filmmakers didn't accurately capture the essence of what refugee resettlement looks like, "if only they had consulted ME, they would have gotten it right" ? No. Actually, my thoughts were more along these lines: "wow, that is so cool!" "can you imagine?!?" and, most astonishingly "wouldn't it be amazing to be involved in something like this? I'm so jealous of those people [the resettlement staff]" And then I remembered that that IS me. I am involved, quite heavily, in the refugee resettlement process. In fact, it's what I spend all day doing, and I get paid for it. And I really enjoy it. It's what I've felt called to do for a long time now. But, for some reason, seeing it on a TV screen made it seem to exotic, and I found myself wishing I was there instead of here. Even though, in this case, here is pretty much the same as there.
I feel so blessed to be doing what I want to do in the here and now. But there are always a thousand other places I'd also like to be. So I suspect that the Big Life Lesson I am supposed to learn right now is to enjoy where I am, especially since it's where I prayed for so long to be. And one Big Life Lesson that I've already learned somewhat, but which God is still reviewing me on, is that the things I'm learning now will prepare me perfectly for whatever comes next. In fact, there's a lot I could say about that, so I'll leave it for another time, because I've got to go--I've got airline tickets to look up:)