This weeks prompts for Weekly Writers Workshop hosted by the inimitable (I should know, I try to imitit him all the time, and I am not able) John Holton on his blog, The Sound of One Hand Typing, are: write a post on the word medications, write a post in exactly 12 sentences, write about what would induce you to give up life as you know it and face the unknown, tell us the story of your personal experience with rejection, write about a bad habit you'd like to eliminate from your life, and write about a time you had to let go of someone you cared for. I'm sure you have deciphered by the enormity of the first sentence, and the title of this post which prompts I have chosen.
There have been at least 5 times in my adult life that I have given up life as I knew it and faced the unknown: moving across the state at the age of 22 to attend university, moving across the world to serve 2 years as a Southern Baptist missionary in Far East Russia in 1992 a few months after the country had opened it's doors to Western missionaries, moving across the U.S. to attend seminary, moving across the country again back to my native Illinois to court the woman who would become my wife, and finally moving against the grain by staying at home for 6 years and homeschooling my children. In each of these cases I gave up life as I knew it and faced the unknown; in the first 4 I also had to let people go that I cared for (the 6th prompt).
What motivated me those 5 times varied by degree but they all had to do with a path I have tried to follow since becoming a follower of Jesus more than 40 years ago and that path has been putting the needs of others before my own. I am not perfect, so I haven't been perfectly motivated and I sure haven't perfectly followed this path but the path has certainly led many times to leaving life as I then knew it.
My first three travels were all based on what I thought would be the life of a missionary. When I left South Carolina where I had attended seminary for a year to pursue marriage with Amy, I had already become uncertain of a career as a missionary, but one of the myriad reasons I had fallen in love with her was because I had seen in our 7 years of friendship that she was also on the path to putting others needs before her own. So I envisioned that we would attempt to meet those needs together, which we have for 26 years and continue to do so however imperfectly.
The needs of my wife and children motivated me as a home educator, they also prepared me for my current job as a substitute teacher. With all our children out of high school, there may come a day when Amy and I, as a couple give up life as we know it and face the unknown. I am certain that the same motivations that directed in the past would lead us into any new unknown.
I know would like to lead you back to the known, which is a variety pack of other submissions that can be found in the comments section of this weeks edition of the Weekly Writer's Workshop.
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