When Passions Align

As a young girl, I remember my friend, my brother, and I purposely unhooking my dog’s leash from his collar, just so that we could chase him as he ran freely through the woods and corn fields behind our house. These quests would take hours. By the time we caught him, we would be covered in burrs, mud, and cuts from the thorns and the cornstalks. We would be breathless and exhausted, and so was the dog. We did this again and again, day after day. Why? Every chase was a new adventure. It was exhilarating. We’d duck under different trees, make different turns, and jump over different puddles. I believe that those mini cornfield adventures, accompanied by a cross-country family road trip or two led to my desire for travel. In traveling you make different turns, stay at different places, meet different people, perhaps learn some pieces of a new language, and soak in a different culture. Every trip is a new adventure.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve always had my eye on traveling. One summer during college, my dad and I took off on a month long road trip to the pacific coast and back. My spring breaks were filled with trips to Colorado to explore Denver and the surrounding mountains. In the months approaching college graduation I planned a six-week trip through a variety of European countries. After graduation, I only applied for jobs outside of my home state as a way to fill a little bit of that travel bug. For years now I’ve been dreaming of a career as a travel nurse, so that my occupation would be centered around travel. In short, my focus on fulfilling my desire to travel has clearly shaped many parts of my experiences.

In my last post I mentioned that this past year has been my best adventure yet. I kicked the year off by moving to a new place. I moved into a new home, started a new job, made new friends, found a new church to call home, located a new coffee shop, so on and so forth. Each day was an adventure. I just walked forward and saw where it took me. The best part of this fresh start was that there were no expectations coming from the outside to majorly impact the course of my adventure. Nobody was expecting me to meet them at a certain time or a certain place, because the people there didn’t know I existed yet. Looking back I realize that I didn’t hold myself to as many expectations either. I never knew what to expect, so I didn’t have room to create any. Most importantly, I didn’t have expectations for God either. For the first time ever, I truly and wholeheartedly threw my hands up and gave God control.

In looking back, I wanted to say that I had truly given God control for the first time after graduating nursing school. I submitted applications for jobs in multiple states. During the time that they were pending, I told God he had control, but in reality, it was only because I was willing to go anywhere at that time. I didn’t have a plan for myself, so I gave God leeway to let me use His plan for a little bit. My only plan was to get the year of experience required to be a travel nurse under my belt. It was easy to give Him control, because His plans weren’t going to interfere with the long term blueprints I had made for myself. As long as He gave me somewhere, anywhere, to complete my year of experience, I was going to be happy.

So God took me to North Carolina, but sitting here and reflecting on the year that has now come and gone, it’s evident that His plan for me stretched far beyond a single year. He has taken me places much greater that I could’ve planned for myself. He has surpassed any expectation that I could’ve set for myself or on Him. I now realize that expectations can confine our abilities. They build a wall between our vision and Gods vision. They enclose us to opportunities only within our scope. A scope that has been created through exposure to what we have experienced. Gods scope is so much bigger.

In the recent months I have been so eager to fill my free time with preparing for this trip. I’ve been diving into scripture, listening for God’s direction, enjoying fellowship centered on Him, standing back as he operated my hands and feet, and so perfectly pieced together each component of this trip. These times of preparation have been so incredibly fulfilling. More so than any walk on the beach, exploration of a new city, or hike over a mountain top. More than any road trip or European adventure.

As I packed my bags, for the first time in these past few months, I realized I was traveling. I know this sounds silly, but I have been so excited in chasing this new desire that God has placed in my heart, that I didn’t even realize how well it aligned with the passion He has implanted in me all along.

Psalm 37:4
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

I’ll leave you with this thought to dwell on. If we are looking for fulfillment through our human-made expectations, how can we expect to stand in awe of our incomprehensible God.