Comfort Zone

If I had to describe my ideal comfort zone in two words, it would be "Church Camp". If you know me you know that I grew up going to camp. Every summer since 2nd grade I have been at church camp. I grew up in the church and that is comfortable for me. Being outside swimming in a dirty lake, getting eaten by mosquitoes, and praising God in a room full of Jr. Highers who haven't seen a shower in 4 days is what I live for. God has done some amazing things in my life while I remained in my comfort zone. I even got to attend a school that, well basically is church camp with homework.

During my senior year of college I assumed I would stay in this awesome zone God had always allowed me to stay in. I was taking a "how to adult class" (don't remember what the real name of the class was) and during the first day we had to talk about where we saw ourselves in 5 years. I had no real idea so I went with what I knew and said I would be working/ running a camp. During this one semester God called me out. He put an idea in my heart that I never would have come up with on my own. Law School. Now I know many of you already know this story, but you might not realize how surprised I was when this thought first came to my mind. Like I freaked out a little. I am someone who would rather travel the globe and be a missionary (like my parents), work in a church, or at a camp, I worried God had me confused with someone else.

I gave God lots of time to change his mind....yet here I am less than a year later and accepted to 4 out of the 5 schools I have applied to (still waiting to hear from #5). God has proved in ways I never imagined and going outside of my comfort zone took more faith than anything I have had to do. He put the destination Washington DC on my heart and so I immediately started looking for how I could get out there before I even started school. As I was searching Google I came across an internship position with International Justice Mission (IJM). IJM is a nonprofit that seeks justice for those in modern day slavery all around the world. The deadline for the application was in one week, so I sat down updated my resume, cover letter, etc. and sent in the application. I prayed about it and didn't really expect to hear back. After two interviews I got the unpaid internship, and was thrilled about moving out to DC. I have been raising support for the last couple months but the full picture of what this meant did not hit me until I started packing today.

As I started packing I realized what I am doing. I am moving by myself to a new city, a city that I have only visited one other time. I am moving in with someone I have never met in person. I will be learning to use public transportation and will be paying much more for just about everything. I will be getting to DC as the new President of the United States will be inaugurated, the whole world will be watching this new place I am calling home. Honestly, I'm scared, I tried telling God this is too far outside of my comfort zone, that I can't do this. But his gentle voice calmed me and reminded me that I was right, I can't do this, but He can.

Matthew 19:26 "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

God will speak to us in our comfort zones, but eventually he will call us out. God knows that new faith comes when we step out of the known and dive head first into the unknown. So, here I go! In three 1/2 weeks I will be officially leaving my comfort zone. I am excited and nervous all at once, but I know that God has called me and will provide for me.