Wandering and Wondering

I was the girl who got her license and then became lost driving in the town I had lived in my whole life.  It took me 3 years to figure out how to get home from college, even though it was a 30 min drive straight down 675.  To say I’m directionally challenged is a little bit of an understatement, and here I find myself in the middle of a city of roughly 8 million, expected to find my own way.

On Friday, I traveled for the first time to one of the two schools I’ll be working in.  For directions… I was relying on a hand-drawn map to show me the way.  Even though I knew this map was correct, I found myself extremely out of my comfort zone as I headed out into the drizzling rain. I couldn’t help but notice my state of vulnerability for the task ahead; walking to find a train station, finding the right platform, knowing when my stop was, and then finding the school.  My heart was beating quicker than normal as I clung to my bag and umbrella, my feet soaked after a few steps in my journey.  I kept one hand in the pocket of my rain jacket, clinging to the piece of paper with the map to provide a source of comfort.  But before I had even made it to my train station, many seeds of doubt had been planted in my mind that I was lost. 

As another YAGM recently wrote in his blog, “divinity comes in the most uncommon ways to us.” (shout out, Nick Tasker)  Mine came this particular Friday morning through a message painted on the side of a building.  As I turned a corner to continue my walk to the train station, I was greeted by graffiti that suddenly made my heart feel lighter and my feet more confident.  The message:

Those who wander aren’t lost.

Those who wonder aren’t lost.

This year is going to be a lesson in trust.  Trusting I am on the right path (no matter how twisted it may be!), trusting in the help of others, trusting myself, trusting God.  Not only will I be traveling to new places, but I’ll experience new sights, challenges, questions, and thoughts.  I won’t always know where I am, what I’m doing, or why I am here.  But if I should remember one thing, I’d like to have the image of that graffiti rooted in my mind. 

I am never lost in the eyes of God. 

 

p.s. I made it to my school!