Our last night in Chicago

"Destiny, I feel, is a relationship - a play between divine 

grace and willful self-effort."

 — Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

Tomorrow we leave for England. It snuck up on me. Here I was living in Chicago, going to church, getting deep dish pizzas, making friends from all over the country, etc... I forgot what I was actually here to do: prepare for a year of service in a foreign country. Tomorrow at 9 the China team will be off for a 12 hour flight to Seoul South Korea, finally reaching China by Sunday. They'll spend the next 10 months working at a University in Nanchong teaching english. Bolivia is leaving at the same time as us for Miami, then straight onto Santa Cruz, Bolivia. They'll spend the next 10 months working at a orphanage and day care. They also might do something concerning health care for people in Bolivia... maybe with AIDS patients... Both of those teams will be living with host families. I can't wait to see how much of the languages they've learned in that time. 

As for my team, we leave tomorrow for Atlanta, stay the night and leave the next night for Manchester. My best friend Kellie is making the long drive up to visit us!! I'm so excited to see her!!! She's the closest thing I have to a sister and I will miss her so much this year =(

Tonight is our last time together as a whole group. To celebrate the end of our orientation, we went to a restaurant down the street from us called "Cafe' Too" - Homeless folks work here as paid interns, learning how to cook and navigate their way into the culinary profession. We each had a three course meal, with a dessert that was out of this world! At the end of our meal our directors Lyz and Darrell handed out glow-in-the-dark bracelets. As we tied each one around our neighbors wrist we said in unison, "May God light your path and may you be a light to others."  It started as a chant, rose to a prayer and settled into a mantra. Before I went to sleep last night, I was thinking about this as I read from "Eat Pray Love." The author, Elizabeth Gilbert, says something about life similar to our blessing, which I quoted at the top of this post. "Destiny," she says, "...is a relationship - a play between divine grace and will-full self effort."  She describes fate like a dance between us and God - each one of us stepping forward and back, swaying and dipping... The question is: if destiny is a dance, whose leading? 

Ultimately, God gives us free will to choose as we wish. But when we come into a relationship with Jesus, His will begins to shape ours. In the bible Paul says "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). So depending on how in tune I am with the kingdom of heaven, the more fluid the dance will look (a.k.a. the more I resemble who I was created to be). Right now I feel like a nervous beginner - awkwardly maneuvering my two left feet across the floor. Other people make it look so easy - gliding effortlessly, perfectly instep with one another so you can't tell whose guiding and whose following, they've become one. 

Devout people know this fluidity doesn't come easily; It takes practice. You'll probably get some blisters, and at one point or another YOU ARE going to look stupid and fall on your ass. And yet, for thousands of years religious people have decided the cost of loving this God is worth it. When they decided this, God stepped in and made something beautiful out of their lives. I pray Bolivia, China and England will all take part in the ongoing creation of God's will on earth, becoming in time, something truly beautiful.  

Life is a dance toward God." -Donald Miller