Longing

Yesterday was Mexico’s Independence Day. I miss Mexico. Correction, my heart aches for Mexico (for those of you who don’t know I spent the better part of 9 months with YWAM in Mazatlan). Last week I saw a friend of mine post something on facebook that said, “I never knew it was possible to miss so many people and places at the same time.” I couldn’t agree more. It’s amazing, especially in the world today how you can be friends with so many people from around the globe and you can feel like you have several different homes spanning across different states and nations. Over the past couple years I’ve begun to realize what Paul is talking about in many of his letters when he says things like “God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:8) and “I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy” (2 Timothy 1:4).

I think this is a part of the text we kind of skip over when we read it. However these kind of versus tell us how much Paul really loved the people he met and the places he went to. They tell us that he had really deep connections with these people so much so that not only did he miss people but he longed to be with them again and that just seeing them would fill him with joy. His heart ached to see them. Being back at school has been great; I’m learning new things and building relationships with many people that I love here. However my heart longs for other places and people just as Paul longed with all the affection of Christ.

Why am I sharing this with you? I’m not sure. Maybe it is to encourage you to build friendships with people that are so deep, so open, and so real that when you don’t see those people, your heart actually aches to see them again. I don’t ever expect this longing feeling to go away. There will always be someone that I am longing to see and to be with no matter where I go in life. However the longing means that I have something of worth and of value. It means I have people worth living for and fighting for. It means I always have someone that is going to encourage me to keep going. Let’s live deep. We can’t stay in the shallow end forever, at some point we got to learn to swim.