Today is March 15, and in exactly three weeks I am moving to Nashville.
If you're surprised by this, don't worry...so am I.
I knew the moment I stepped off the plane last April, and set foot in Tennessee for the first time, that my entire life had just changed. Wherever my life was headed before that, the path shifted suddenly, and I knew it was going to take me to Nashville. I just didn't know when.
Fast-forward 11 months, and here I am- everything I own is in piles and cardboard boxes strewn over the entire upstairs of my parents' house. It's almost upon me; that moment when I'll climb into my 2009 Corolla and make the 13 hour drive to my new home. And I have never been more excited. Or more terrified.
I have no job, a couple friends, and absolutely no idea what I'll be doing when I get there.
The only thing I know for sure is that the Lord has called me to Nashville. And for now, that's enough.
I kept waiting for everything to fall perfectly into place before I took the plunge. I wanted my future gift-wrapped, with a pretty pink bow on top. But the older I get the more I see that life just doesn't work that way. And the Lord kept whispering that what He wanted from me was more faith and fewer excuses.
And at some point you just know- this is what I'm supposed to do. So I'm just going to do it.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where I find myself now.
It scared me at first. It still does, if I'm being honest. But my thoughts shifted a bit when I realized-
I've spent my entire life falling in love with epic stories full of adventure; people who stepped out their front door, not knowing what was ahead of them, who ended up living the most extraordinary lives.
Most people live fairly safe and ordinary lives. And I am in no way saying that's a bad thing. But I want something different; something more. To quote Belle from Beauty and the Beast
(my favorite Disney Princess for about a million and one reasons):
"I want adventure in the great wide somewhere. I want it more than I can tell. And for once it might be grand to have someone understand I want so much more than they've got planned."
The truth is, no one wants to read a story about someone who played it safe, stayed at home, and never took any risks. It sounds frightfully boring to me, so I can't for one second imagine why I was ever happy living that life. I want to be Frodo Baggins, leaving the Shire and carrying the ring across Middle Earth to save everyone he loves. I want to be Lucy Pevensie, stepping into a wardrobe and discovering a whole new world. I want to be Rose Tyler, leaving behind the life of a London shop girl to travel through all of time and space with a mad man with a blue box. I want my life to be a story worth telling.
But for that to happen, I have to take that first step out my front door.
The title of this blog was taken from an excerpt from The Lord of the Rings, by the great JRR Tolkien
The road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began
Now far ahead the road has gone
And I must follow, if I can
Pursuing it with eager feet
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet
And wither then? I cannot say
I think that sums up my life quite adequately at the moment.
It's a little crazy, but I'm ok with that.
At least it won't be boring.
(Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit)
