something beautiful: October 2010

Early this summer I remember feeling a little bit sad to have to leave for Taiwan so soon after just returning home for a week or so. I looked around my room the last day as I was packing, knowing that I was going to leave the comfort of my bed and the familiarity of my house. Then something clicked in my head. Goodbye, I told my room, you are not my true home anyway. Goodbye house, you have been good to me, but you I will not hesitate to leave you to follow my calling elsewhere. And then I picked up my luggage and left.

7 weeks later I returned, and for the first time in my life, home felt strange and foreign. Though everything I did returned to normal, I saw my life as from an outsider's point of view. While I lived life normally, my mind was busy making commentaries. And then I left again.

On a similar note, one of the greatest encouragement I received freshman year was ... a comment on Facebook. It went, "Homesick? Bless you! Been there. Survived that. What is even more heartbreaking is the day you realize that home - and all it represents: security, stability, certainty, a haven of rest, unconditional love, and more - is gone, for good. Of course, it is a painful process of spiritual maturing when you realize that none of those things were ever really found at home. Rather they are, and will always be, found in Jesus! I will pray for you as you take that journey, my sister."

On yet another note (it's related I promise),

While this song, In Exile by Thrice, is playing on my headphones, everything I shared above and all of these pictures below flash through my head as I'm walking to campus...

I am in exile, a sojourner
A citizen of some other place
All I've seen is just a glimmer in a shadowy mirror
But I know one day we'll see face to face.