Rebecca's vacation thoughts

For the past two weeks I have been on vacation in Romania, visiting cities all over. Romania truly is a beautiful country! If you know me at all, you know at times I can be very quiet. And at times I was very quiet on vacation. Silence for me can mean many different things...but sometimes it is the way I try to process all that is going on. Vacations are supposed to be fun, relaxing times where you leave all the stresses and worries of normal life behind. I found that I was bombarded by many different things, things that make you stop and evaluate your life, your purpose, your very existence while on vacation. It was the faces of the children begging in the train stations, the thoughts of what is their future, and wondering how cold your heart has to become to not be touched by them. It was thinking about the kids I love, "my kids," and wondering about if they will ever accept the greatest love possible...wondering what their futures will be like. I was thinking about a friend from back home who is battling cancer for the second time. This is the exact kind of thinking that brought us here full-time...when we were stuck in Amsterdam for two days in 2008 on our way home from summer camp here in Romania. And I had to ask myself again, am I really following after God with all my heart? Do I sacrifice all of myself, do I love with all that I am and more? Does my life bring glory and honor to God? It is only in God that my life has any value, purpose, only in him do I find the reasons to go on and to have hope. There are so many things in this life that no matter how much you think about them, you can't make them right...only by trusting that God is in control and is doing his perfect, pleasing, and good will, can you find any balance. In the faith that he is doing something good, bigger than we can imagine behind the scenes and moving through all the chaos of life and the consequence of this sinful world. In that faith I rest, I trust, and can move forward, full of hope for the complete restoration that is to come.

So in conclusion, vacation for me apparently means wrestling with the truth and getting my heart broken again for the things that break God's heart.

Who is ready to vacation with me?