The incoherence continues

I ran across this post today over at My Crazy Adoption, and I felt like I'd fallen into a breach in the space-time continuum, where time stood still and I sat frozen to my chair, unable to breathe or move or speak. I sat there for what seemed like hours, reading all of her mission trip posts, following links to the blogs of people who've been on her teams in the past, looking at pictures, reading testimonials. Actually, I don't remember what it was that caught my attention first, or what it was that lead me from one thing to another to another, but what I do remember is Kari saying this:

I waited 42 years before I went on my first missions trip. I had yearned, and dreamed, and prayed for years, but never had the courage to really go! I LOVE kids and love traveling… why did it take me so long to go on a missions trip? I hate to admit this, but I was intimidated and it was never convenient for me to go. I’m a stay at home mom and the timing just never seemed right for me. My hubby was supportive, but not in a “do it now” kind of way. I always had an excuse. The money was usually my down fall.... I prayed and prayed that God would give me a creative idea. I pushed my old fears down and moved forward with a plan.

If your heart is stirring, don’t wait – start the ball rolling, especially if you feel excitement and joy and yearning when you read our itinerary.

Here’s 3 Crazy Reasons why you should come with me to Ethiopia & Uganda:

1.Orphans desperately need you to come and simply love them. BASICALLY Haiti is happening to children all over this world….the media is just not covering it. They lose their parents suddenly to HIV, malaria, malnutrition, starvation and other horrific ends to a life. Or, they are traumatized as they are just abandoned and left with a feeling of worthlessness, feeling forgotten and not knowing the consistent love of a parent or anyone else. Some orphans never even get to see outside of the building of their orphanage. Orphans in this world, unless visited by God’s people, will not know their Savior as their Abba Daddy. He is their Father and He is the only one who in our absence can give them the consistent love they were created to receive. If we don’t go…who will go for us?

2.Lose some weight with me. Are you loaded down with the weight of mommyhood? The busyness of your life as a mom - the comfortable, conveniences of structure, playdates, Target runs, carpools, sports events… well, mission trips do a great job at shaking things up and forcing you to let go and serve out of your comfort zone.

3.Be part of a God-Inspired Adventure - this means doing something RADICAL (emphasis mine God's), out of the normal, daily routine we get stuck in as moms. You get to see God work in others lives and in your own life on a mission trip.

If you are on the fence, trying to make every mommy detail perfect before you make the decision to go, I challenge you to jump down and pray forward. ...I promise you that this trip will change your life. Your family will benefit from you doing something soooo RADICAL (emphasis mine God's)… you’ll be a crazier mom!

When I read that word - you know, the big, bold, blue one up there - I felt like my eyes were somehow melded to it and couldn't move forward. I'd try reading on, but my eyes just kept going back to that word over and over and over. Remember in the final scene of Sleepless in Seattle how Annie just keeps looking over at Sam again and again, like she's trying to look away but just can't? Yeah, like that.

And then. And then....I followed one of the links on Kari's blog (can't remember to where, but I think maybe it might have been to this blog), and read these words, "I just finished reading Radical by David Platt...." Ugh.

Later today I was thinking about my wardrobe for the cruise, and trying to plan what I need to buy and what I need to take for each occasion, and all of a sudden I realized that I wasn't planning clothes for different aspects of the cruise, I was trying to figure out what clothes I would need for different aspects of a trip to Uganda.

I am seriously messed up.