I have some really spectacular advice for the young people of the world.
Missionaries, wanderlusters, and the like.
Don’t travel! Don’t go!
DON’T
DO
IT!
Everything will change.
You will start to care about people in a new place. And then life will be terrible.
Yup, TERRIBLE
FOREVER
because you will never be able to “uncare” for those people again.
So, no big deal, you say.
Oh no, no, no, deary. You see, if you leave you will miss them. A LOT. Especially if you don’t know when you will go back.
Okay, so stay.
Nope.
That won’t do either.
Because people are everywhere.
You have people you love back home. Or in your passport country. Or whatever you call it. Family, friends. So that won’t do either.
And the days will come when your best friend gets married. Then, your sister has a baby. And your brother’s wife has a baby. Where? You know, there. Not here.
But then your new friends get married. Here. Not there.
And babies. And weddings. And parties. And funerals. And birthdays. And Christmas. AND EVERY DAY. Here and there and here and there.
But yes, the big events are hard.
But the worst part. The most difficult days?
The “everydays.”
All of the days that you aren't there for the little things. Not living life with ALL of the ones you love.
And then one day your friend will have a baby. Here. And a friend will die. There.
And you know that it's too late. You have people here and you have people there. And you will never live life with ALL the ones you love in one place.
So, don’t go, sweetie. Don’t go. *
*This is based on a conversation I had with a good friend, Emily Taylor, who used to work in the mission field with us a while ago. It’s meant to be tongue in cheek, you know. It’s been an emotional day! I think I felt all the emotions today. I love where God has taken us and don’t regret being here, of course. But my friends, count well the cost, Lord knows it’s not easy to try to live life in two places.
