Would you?

I'm finding more and more that writing is a really great way for me to process things...specifically my mission trip to the Philippines. =-)

I was reading back over my journal from the trip, and the last sentence I wrote before coming home (I believe I was on a plane from Seoul, South Korea to Atlanta, Georgia) was this, "I have this feeling of peace in me that I could leave everything behind and be completely happy."

It hit me while reading this again that this sentence just about sums up my trip. It shows you how little I care about the material things now.

Picking up the cross is a choice. Every single day we have to wake up and choose to follow Christ. But I promise you, sometimes it's when you leave it all behind you will truly see God move. There's nothing wrong with having material possessions, but as I've been learning, the more you have, the harder it is to leave behind at a moments notice. And what if God were to ask you to do that today? What if He spoke to you and challenged you to get up and walk away from it all? And that's just it. I've always heard it described as "giving up everything". It's not giving up anything really. Things of true value are the things in Heaven, so we are giving up our earthly things, but those were temporary anyway, right? We still have God. He might be calling you to put all of your trust in Him and just walk away. Could you do it? Some of us sit here and probably think, "gosh, I think I woud miss a few things quite a bit." In the Philippines we didn't have beds. We didn't have a couch, we had plastic chairs. We didn't have air conditioning. We didn't have cell phones. We had very limited internet access. And you know what? My life was honestly better without any of it. I barely even thought about not having a cell phone, and the times I did, I remember thinking to myself, "life is so much easier without it. All day I get to have face-to-face conversations with people. I get to focus on laying my hands on people and actually praying for them." And yes, at times I missed my family. But the reality of it was that I had a family right where I was. I lived the month in constant fellowship with other believers, I lived the month with the family that I will one day spend eternity with.

I remember the last night of our team being together. It was probably the night where it all came together. There was laughing...and there were tears. We had become so close, and we had been through a month of really tough spiritually and emotionally draining things. But I remember saying to all the girls on my team, "You know, this really isn't goodbye. If we don't see each other here, I'll see you in Heaven." That to me is the most amazing thing about our brothers and sisters in Christ. Goodbyes are never really goodbyes. Yea, it may feel like we have to wait so long. But compare the time we wait while being away from them, to the eternity we get to spend with them. It's like the blink of an eye.

Now going back to my previous thought. I'm not saying God has called me to walk away from everything. On the contrary, He's called me to right where I am....for the time being. It was the realization that I could walk away from it all that He was asking for. It was my commitment in saying, "God, at a moments notice. You speak. I act. I'd follow Your footsteps across the world if that's what You someday ask of me."

So would you? Would you walk away from everything you have in your life right now to follow God?