Final Thoughts!

August 5th

Again, written but not posted in July. My mom was checking my blog the other day and reminded me that I never posted my last entry or brought it to a close. So this will conclude my blog of my Papuan adventures. And it makes me sad!

I’ve been home almost a month now, though it doesn’t seem like. And already I’m on the road again. Right now I am on a flight to Minnesota where I am looking forward to seeing college friends and my brother. Next weekend my brother, his girlfriend, and I will drive back to New Hampshire for a week of family vacation; I am also looking forward to that.

In my last post I talked about the lack of culture “shock”. I would still agree that it is not a shock, but it has still been hard. At first it was just nice to see friends and get reacquainted with my life here, which I missed. But now that I am getting into the daily routine and life here again, I don’t quite feel like I completely fit here either. I enjoyed life in Wamena, despite the challenges and not quite fitting in there either.

Contentment is a concept that I have always struggled to understand. I want to be content, but I also want the anticipation of an adventure – whether it be travel, new relationships, a new job. How can you be content but also be pressing forward in life? I felt like that was something I learned a little about my time in Papua. Having a few close friends has always been my “style”. That sometimes makes short term moves difficult for me since it takes time to develop those deeper relationships.

Shortly after I arrived in Papua I had an ah-ha moment in terms of contentment related to relationships. I can style value and strive for those deeper relationships, but my prayer became not for those relationships, but for God to fulfill my relational needs in whatever way He chose. I felt like I had that balance there – being content with the opportunities I had while also having that desire for more depth.

I say all that now because I had the same ah-ha moment this week. It was easy to slip back into my way of life here, and in that relational area it meant trying to control and strive for those deep relationships. But I realized that despite all the differences between life here and there, that doesn’t have to be one of them. I can pray that same thing here and be content with however the Lord blesses me – whether my relationships are long or short, deep or not, they can all be of value.

I wanted to close my blog with that thought because I want to apply more of what learned while I was there, personally and professionally. I don’t want to slip back into the same self I was before, but to remember everything I learned in Indonesia and continue to grow from there.

I will leave you with another line from the song I started with – “Follow Love”, no matter where I end up next I just want to make the most of each moment I live.

And we’re not guaranteed tomorrow
So we must just keep on living for today
Make the most of every moment
Every step along the way

Now that I have fast internet I am also adding pictures to the blog, so if you weren’t able to see them from the link before you can go back and see some of them now (or soon at least!).