It's happened.
I finally got excited. I think that maybe I was afraid to let it happen too early. But ever since I realized that I am less that 1422 hours away from arriving in Africa again, something has felt different. I guess I have been avoiding letting myself feel the way I should feel about doing the thing I think I was born to do. But, with another chance for my dreams to come to realization in the very near future, I am absolutely overcome with joy, passion, and raw excitement
For the last two years I have been wary of implying that serving, loving, teaching, growing, and living in Africa were any more important, special, or purposeful than doing those same things in North America. Any logical person should be able to come to the conclusion that they have to be equal. For the most part, we have little control over where we are geographically located at any given time, give or take a vacation every couple of years. It stands to reason then, that we are called to serve and love the people around us.....not simply serve and love when we happen to be in an area where the the needs are literally written all over peoples' faces.
But the reality is that we were each made uniquely.
I have spent the last two years learning a lot about my brain, and my heart, and my unique strengths. And, as it turns out, this whole theme of mercy is more than a coincidence in my life. While I won't even pretend to take credit for it, I realize that all of those nursing school lectures on empathy must have stuck and I have been left with the ability to legitimately feel what another person is feeling. At this point in my very immature career, I usually lack the tools and skills necessary to solve the problem. But, I feel it. Sometimes, when I am really lucky, as if it were my own pain.
Lately, I have been asking God to "break my heart with what breaks His"....and miraculously, He has. I am starting to feel direct compassion for the patients that I have yet to meet, but that I am going to have the opportunity to serve in Togo.
Some people will change their world by changing policies. Some people will change their world by being influential public figures. Some people will change their world through strategic application of their financial affluence. I hope to change my world through the unique privilege of demonstrating the compassion God first showed to me to someone who may not have experienced it before.
And that excites me.
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It's happened.
I finally got excited. I think that maybe I was afraid to let it happen too early. But ever since I realized that I am less that 1422 hours away from arriving in Africa again, something has felt different. I guess I have been avoiding letting myself feel the way I should feel about doing the thing I think I was born to do. But, with another chance for my dreams to come to realization in the very near future, I am absolutely overcome with joy, passion, and raw excitement
For the last two years I have been wary of implying that serving, loving, teaching, growing, and living in Africa were any more important, special, or purposeful than doing those same things in North America. Any logical person should be able to come to the conclusion that they have to be equal. For the most part, we have little control over where we are geographically located at any given time, give or take a vacation every couple of years. It stands to reason then, that we are called to serve and love the people around us.....not simply serve and love when we happen to be in an area where the the needs are literally written all over peoples' faces.
But the reality is that we were each made uniquely.
I have spent the last two years learning a lot about my brain, and my heart, and my unique strengths. And, as it turns out, this whole theme of mercy is more than a coincidence in my life. While I won't even pretend to take credit for it, I realize that all of those nursing school lectures on empathy must have stuck and I have been left with the ability to legitimately feel what another person is feeling. At this point in my very immature career, I usually lack the tools and skills necessary to solve the problem. But, I feel it. Sometimes, when I am really lucky, as if it were my own pain.
Lately, I have been asking God to "break my heart with what breaks His"....and miraculously, He has. I am starting to feel direct compassion for the patients that I have yet to meet, but that I am going to have the opportunity to serve in Togo.
Some people will change their world by changing policies. Some people will change their world by being influential public figures. Some people will change their world through strategic application of their financial affluence. I hope to change my world through the unique privilege of demonstrating the compassion God first showed to me to someone who may not have experienced it before.
And that excites me.