We are the walkabout pilrims

"Two things I ask of you; do not deny them to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need, or I shall be full, and deny you, and say, "Who is the LORD?" or I shall be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God."

Proverbs 30:7-9 (NRSV)

Looking at the doors ahead of us, Ryan and I felt somewhat upside down. Traveling during an economic recession seems daft, but I need that daftness in my life right now. In fact, I think that most of the things worthwhile in our lives were foolish to us at one point or another. It's like my friend who asked me to videotape his engagement at the World War II monument: he's scared stiff, and she looks gorgeous - they both look great - and yet, even though anyone who knows them knows she'll say yes, he's scared.

I don't want to be scared into what my culture deems as successful. I don't want to be one of the sad, sad faces when we tell them of our trip and they say "I wish I'd done something like that." I don't want to be another writer who keeps getting rejected and decides to never write again, letting that divine gift atrophy, not knowing that most great writers from James Joyce to J.K. Rowling got rejected far more than they were accepted; Joyce even burned his original manuscript of "A Portrait of the Artist of a Young Man" because of rejection, but he rewrote it.

What do we want? We want to serve people and learn. We want to see things that we have always read about but always heard were far, too far away. We want to write and do art and dive into the passions that God has planted in us in spite of criticism of art and the idea that a successful life is a stable one where the next step is obvious.

We are walkabout pilgrims: stepping out in faith into where we needed to go, trusting that there will be ground beneath our feet. There's no end in sight until May (when I return for a wedding), and though we felt Europe seemed right, we could be in Korea by the end of it all, or Argentina, or the States. Pray for us if you think about it - Lord knows we can use as much of it as we can get - but don't live vicariously through us. Life is a blessing, with many worthy passions and dreams, and there's never a station in life when they can't come to fruition.