the road

today i read the following sentence: the road is never long between friends.

firstly, yes it is. sometimes it is very long. sometimes it is too long. i've even experienced there not being a road at all, it ended at the metaphorical atlantic ocean.

this sunday, i'll be driving my 93' legend roughly 2400 miles from my home in franklin, tennessee to multnomah biblical seminary in portland, oregon. if God put a straight line road east to west across australia (the 6th largest country in the world), it would be roughly how far i am driving. that is a pretty long road, even for friends. just google map nashville to portland. i'm an idiot.

i don't care what the happy people at hallmark or whoever came up with the quote above tell you, distance is hard on any relationship. and that distance, or that road if i may, can feel longer and longer, making you feel more and more alone.

these are the kind of fears that accompany any kind of drastic geographical relocation. i worry about my relationships with friends here at home, even though some of those often feel distant while we are 7 minutes away. i think about college and how many of my friendships have faded away. these people i was so close to i now pseudo-spy on with facebook, during my monthly visits.

it is amazing how that happens. i can only blame the road, the space between a and b. it is natural. you stay close to some and in a few years probably forget the name of the others. distance has a way of weaning out relationships. some you miss more than others.

wow, this has become bleak. yeah michael phelps! woo-hoo!

with that transition, i'll become a little more positive. with the relocation come the opportunity of new relationships, new friendships. the distance can either motivate you to seek those out, or you can let it lock you in your room, pining for the moment you get to go home.

i'm not the kind to pine. i'll get a little wistful thinking about yesteryear whenever i have a worther's original, but don't carry the desire for the past that is associated with pining. so i guess that leaves me on the other side.

i'm hopeful for what is out there for me. it is a part of my life that has been coming for the last four years. it is something i've prayed about more than a few times. it is comforting to know it is almost here.

i feel like i'm being faithful, not only to the call on my life, but to God's leading in general. that has been my goal in life, to always say yes to Him.

this saying yes has put me in strange and sometimes uncomfortable places but also provided me with amazing experiences and the chance to know amazing people. sunday morning it will have me in a 15-year old car driving across australia (figuratively) with high gas prices , a sad amount of money in my bank-account and no cruise-control. i'll have plenty of time to ask God what the heck i'm doing. maybe some day i'll have an idea. for right now, i'm just trying to say yes.