My good friend and author buddy Jason Clark has a saying. It’s called “Do it for the story.”
We ran into him today at a friend’s daughter’s b-day party. Guess what he said when we told him about Thailand?
“That’s awesome guys, do it for the story right!?”
I love this line of thinking, and it’s absolutely part of the reason we are headed to Thailand. Oh, and if you didn’t already know that, yep, Miranda and I are headed to Thailand in the beginning of the New Year for a few months. Surprise.
But why?
First of all, do you really need a reason to drop everything and go where you feel God is leading you? I guess we shouldn’t but it can be hard to make a big change.
Yet there is a sense that we ought not to be irresponsible. No doubt many might think we are being reckless, but the fact of the matter is that we are! We are refusing to play it safe. We are refusing to stick with the status quo. We are refusing to play defense with our lives.
We want to be challenged.
We want to grow.
We want to move so far beyond our own comfort zone that we are molded into better people.
We also want to see new places and meet new people, but the core of why we are going is to stretch and grow into better versions of ourselves.
I am convinced that we can’t change the world from our bubbles. The very essence of a bubble is that it leaves out the outside. As Christians this cannot be our M.O. I hardly care for dictionary definitions, but one I found for “bubble’ is as follows: “Used to refer to a good or fortunate situation that is isolated from reality or unlikely to last.”
This is picturesque of how we tend to live our lives isn’t it? We live thinking that we exist in relative safety until things come crashing down around us.
For me, I will place my identity in Christ alone and will follow my heart long before I follow the advice of the world. I realize that a certain level of arrogance might be read there, but I assure you this isn’t the case. I’ll be the first to admit that I am unsure, but my unsurity does not belay my footsteps.
Instead, I choose to live free of fear. If your identity is in Christ and you believe with all of your heart that he died for you, giving you eternal salvation, what is there to fear?
I have dealt with anxiety most of my life. I get it from my mom (thanks Mom, love you!). I have lived the better part of 29 years in fear of what is coming next.
What I want (and what I am growing into) is to live a life with zero regrets. We have NO idea how much time we have left. Life is way too short to spend it fulfilling anything less than our ultimate potential.
It’s been fun telling people that we are going to Thailand. The responses have been overwhelmingly positive and I can’t tell you how much your support means to us.
If you wouldn’t mind I want to offer one challenge here. I want to challenge any of you who might have thought, “that sounds great but I could never do it.” Actually, you probably can’t. Life right now won’t allow for it and that’s just reality. But 3 months, 6 months, a year down the line? Anything can happen with a little planning regardless of current circumstance.
Bold words maybe, but I believe in people, I believe in the power of change, and I believe that we are capable of so much more than we realize.
For us, we are excited, trepidatious, and just all around kind of freaking out about this next adventure. How do we know that this is the right time? We DON”T! And this is what makes life so crazy and fun.
I firmly believe that we can never be more than 80% sure of a decision. When we get close to that 80% we have to jump. Maybe the big life change for you is even less than 80%, maybe it’s a true coin toss?
My answer, and one that I have found to be true over and over again, is to err on the side of action and go.
Go. Leap. Soar. Growth is not found by stagnant living. It’s found through change and living beyond your comfort zone.
Wish us luck. If you never hear from us again, drop us a line next time you visit Asia.
-Jordan
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