To Boldy Go
I spoke with my friend Shan this evening. Shan and I worked together a few summers ago and she was one of the ones I reconnected with when I checked my old email address. We spoke for about half an hour. What a ride it was.
Shan has never been afraid of an adventure. Amazingly, she began to follow Jesus even though no one in her family did. This journey in passionate pursuit of Christlike-ness has led her to many places physically, spiritually and emotionally. But she makes no apologies about the kind of person God has called her to be. She just continues boldly onward.
She just returned from Israel. She went on a two-week trek through the countryside, traveling as a disciple might have. I soon learned that this was a theme in her life now: she’s sold almost all of her possessions and now simply rents a small apartment for the four or so boxes of stuff she has to her name. She believes in traveling light so as to be ready on the exciting adventure she finds in being a Christian.
This adventure has not been all roses, or one in which she just goes to the Middle East or moves to Colorado on a whim. Recently, her stepfather died, her mother got cancer, her grandmother has been placed on suicide watch, and there’s a whole host of others in her life who don’t have a clue. But talking to Shan, separated by thousands of miles, yet connected by a summer and a cell phone signal, you would never know she is going boldly on in the midst of pain and confusion, right through the middle of the valley of the shadow of death.
Foolishly, I asked if she felt like she had to be the answer-woman or the super-Christian to her family in times like these – if the atheists had realized the fruitlessness of their trek and wanted the answers that a sound Christianity could provide. She said she’s gotten very few questions during this time from her proud family. But they watch her even more so. It’s pressure enough to do things others think are crazy – it’s even worse when they still watch every crazy step you take. But such scrutiny doesn’t intimidate or fluster Shan; she boldly continues on the journey, herself serving as a compass pointing to the true North. And for her, that’s the only answer she wants to give: a single life lived purely and consistently. Maybe that is the real journey of a lifetime to which Jesus calls us.
She’s waiting to hear back from a program that could have her teaching this fall in Europe or Africa. Or maybe she’ll stay put in Colorado, or even journey back to the Florida or Washington of her younger days. Regardless, Shan has showed me that it’s never where you are but where you’re headed in this journey of life that matters. I learned in Shan’s classroom this Friday afternoon that to boldly go does not require careful planning, a travel guide, or a designer backpack. It just requires a willingness to say yes. Here’s to Shan – may she teach us all as she ventures out on the mysterious and exciting journey with Christ.
Shan has never been afraid of an adventure. Amazingly, she began to follow Jesus even though no one in her family did. This journey in passionate pursuit of Christlike-ness has led her to many places physically, spiritually and emotionally. But she makes no apologies about the kind of person God has called her to be. She just continues boldly onward.
She just returned from Israel. She went on a two-week trek through the countryside, traveling as a disciple might have. I soon learned that this was a theme in her life now: she’s sold almost all of her possessions and now simply rents a small apartment for the four or so boxes of stuff she has to her name. She believes in traveling light so as to be ready on the exciting adventure she finds in being a Christian.
This adventure has not been all roses, or one in which she just goes to the Middle East or moves to Colorado on a whim. Recently, her stepfather died, her mother got cancer, her grandmother has been placed on suicide watch, and there’s a whole host of others in her life who don’t have a clue. But talking to Shan, separated by thousands of miles, yet connected by a summer and a cell phone signal, you would never know she is going boldly on in the midst of pain and confusion, right through the middle of the valley of the shadow of death.
Foolishly, I asked if she felt like she had to be the answer-woman or the super-Christian to her family in times like these – if the atheists had realized the fruitlessness of their trek and wanted the answers that a sound Christianity could provide. She said she’s gotten very few questions during this time from her proud family. But they watch her even more so. It’s pressure enough to do things others think are crazy – it’s even worse when they still watch every crazy step you take. But such scrutiny doesn’t intimidate or fluster Shan; she boldly continues on the journey, herself serving as a compass pointing to the true North. And for her, that’s the only answer she wants to give: a single life lived purely and consistently. Maybe that is the real journey of a lifetime to which Jesus calls us.
She’s waiting to hear back from a program that could have her teaching this fall in Europe or Africa. Or maybe she’ll stay put in Colorado, or even journey back to the Florida or Washington of her younger days. Regardless, Shan has showed me that it’s never where you are but where you’re headed in this journey of life that matters. I learned in Shan’s classroom this Friday afternoon that to boldly go does not require careful planning, a travel guide, or a designer backpack. It just requires a willingness to say yes. Here’s to Shan – may she teach us all as she ventures out on the mysterious and exciting journey with Christ.
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