The game of Life

When we play the game of Life with our children, their beautiful minds and untainted perspectives are fun to watch. Adults attempt to figure out how to get the best job, the biggest house, and the most money. Our kids like different colors, collecting the little pink and blue pegs that represent their families, and the volunteer opportunities available on the board.

Now you might say that adults have an appreciation for reality that children don't. And I might say that our reality kept us from accomplishing the really important things that the Lord has for us.

You see, we knew we were supposed to be more directly involved in missions in March of 1994. That's when Vickie and I were engaged. We knew it on our wedding day, we knew it when each of our three children were born. We knew it when, through job changes, we moved from Texas to Wisconsin to Texas, and then finally to Minnesota.

We just didn't obey. So what happened? I was steadily promoted to positions of more responsibility in my career. We steadily saved money for our retirement. We served in numerous ministries in our churches wherever we lived. We raised our children in home school and in church. Period. As time went by, the idea of long term or even short term missions just slowly disappeared like a sandcastle at low tide. Now what I described above may be obedience for some, but for us, it was not where the Lord wanted us to be.

To get to where we are today, we had to do three things. We had to decide, first of all, that our children will thrive when they are challenged with the unknown. Under the right circumstances, and with the right parental involvement, there lives will be made more meaningful by our Costa Rica trip and those in the future. Second, we had to set aside monetary goals for retirement, in order to invest in the Lord's work today. I'm not saying that we cleaned out our bank accounts to take this trip, but we did have to shift gears in terms of retirement savings, emergency funds, and all the other things Christians are told they need by church financial planners. Third, we had to come to terms with the fact that when we moved from Minnesota to Illinois, our lives would never be the same again. We would not have the tradition of raising our children in familiar surroundings for all their years at home. We would never think about our lives in terms of thirty years of employment, raising our children and sending them off to college, and looking forward to the retirement years. We would be different.

All this is a little scary to us, but we are comforted by the fact that we know we are doing right. Right by God, and right by those He has sent us to serve.

For most of you, you are made for and are probably perfectly content with your lives just as they are today. For the few of you that feel as if something is missing, chase your dreams, plan an adventure with your family, and take off. You'll never regret it. By the way, if you're thinking about taking an adventure, chasing a dream, or doing something crazy, read Donald Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I loved it.