I’m not sure if I knew what I was signing up for when I said yes to going on another “adventure.” Seven standby flights later, still stuck in Chicago, looking at the floors of Midway and wondering if it was more comfortable if I took an hour of subway travel to sleep at O’Hare… wondering if I was ever going to get to Germany… I began to see a very clear picture of what God was asking me to do. I was being asked to choose to follow Him into a life that would include hardship.

I sat in the airport, looking at the crowd of strangers, feeling like I was just one of the many. I would watch couples, families, and groups of friends walk by, and I caught myself longing for a friend to share the hardship.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize… Surely, He felt alone sometimes too. He was no stranger to hardship. He even chose it! He looked at the path before Him, knowing that the cross was coming, and He set His face toward Jerusalem. Who is this man?

This next season of my life is going to include a daily decision to “set my face” somewhere. If I am brave enough, I will look East. I will look at Germany. This will mean exchanging comfort and safety for strangeness and instability. I like safety. I like comfort. But I think I trust Jesus enough to give this up for what He is choosing to do in me and the world. My movement of trust does not come without blessing, for He is surely good.

If I would have never left home, I would have never experienced Hospitality.

It was 11 o’clock at night, as I sat in the Atlanta airport with a standby ticket for a 5:20pm flight the next day. I was beginning to examine the benches in order to decide which one would become my home for the next 20 hours, and I received a phone call from Lukas.

I had never met Lukas, but He heard that I was stranded and offered to come pick me up and let me sleep at his house. He graciously received me, a stranger in a foreign place, and gave me a bed to sleep in and food to eat. He took me in and blessed me with comfort I did not deserve. He shared his possessions, his time, and even his story with me. I saw a side of Atlanta, with its big beautiful trees, its rich civil rights history, and its polite and studious people, that I never knew existed.

If I would have not risked the adventure, chosen the hardship, then I would never have seen this beautiful place with this hospitable brother. I’m not even in Germany yet, and I’m starting to see a richer story being written in and around me. As I get ready to try to navigate another set of standby flights, unsure if I’ll end up in Stuttgart, Munich, Zurich, Paris, or Amsterdam, my prayer is that I will remember this Atlanta adventure as I continue to choose the uncomfortable, trusting that God has good things in store.