Today Clay returns home after twelve days in India and Uganda. And I couldn’t be more excited. Let’s just say last night felt like Christmas Eve.
This was his first trip as Director of Global Outreach at Bel Air Church and his first trip without me since we were married less than seven months ago. Clay received this promotion just weeks before our wedding day in April. When we got engaged his job description was Director of Young Adults and Men’s Ministry. And while this new addition to his job title may be small, it has a pretty big implication on our lives.
Just before Clay left on his trip, he preached all three Sunday services for the very first time. He actually began his sermon by asking the congregation if they had ever found themselves in a situation pondering, “How did I get here?” And if I hadn’t before, I most definitely have over these last two weeks without him here.
I had this realization for the very first time: I’m married to “the missions guy.”
What does that look like for our lives? Our future? Our future children and family? So many questions flooded my mind.
Clay ended that sermon with a statement about how as “the missions guy” he, of course, would like to get as many people as possible on a plane to somewhere far away, and yet there are plenty of “missions” opportunities and work to be done right where we are in our everyday lives. No matter where we go or what we do, God has called us all to live our lives with a missional perspective.
And so, while I may wonder how I got here, and while there may be a bit more processing to do, I am so very grateful that I am married to a missional man, and that we have made a decision to live missional lives and to have a missional marriage. And yet, that doesn’t always mean it’s easy…
. . .
Join me tomorrow as I share more about what God is revealing to me in this season.
“it is my growing conviction that my life belongs to others just as much as it belongs to myself and that what is experienced as most unique often proves to be most solidly embedded in the common condition of human being.” – Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out
