I’m an avid traveller. There’s nothing I enjoy more than packing my suitcase (which I have down to an art form), swiftly moving past people at the terminal and hopping on an aeroplane.
And since my first international flight, which I boarded one week after I finished my university degree, flying through timezones and landing in a completely different place has become synonymous with personal transitions in my life.
It signalled the transition from old to new. From child to adult. From a semblance of who I used to be, to who I am now becoming. The plane itself is a place of limbo, and it feels like you’re suspended in time and space until you come out at the other end, ready to take on a new adventure.
I was willing to let go of all the ‘old’ things in my life to grasp onto something new. The allure of leaving behind the fear and feelings of failure was all I wanted. I desperately wanted to be something, or someone else, and travel seemed to be the only way I could become that.
Inevitably, I would come home from my trips depressed and angry. I couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t establish the life I wanted. I wrestled with God for years, accusing him of unfaithfulness. But when I finally released and let go, I realised something profound—I was still becoming the person I’d always wanted to be. And I didn’t need a foreign land, new people or less baggage to do it. God was still moving in my life.
Day by day, I became more confident. More self-assured. Bolder, and more ready to take risks. I backed myself and began writing for a living. I let myself put down roots, experienced heartbreak and finally went back to counselling. Instead of running away from who I was, I ran full tilt into who I am. And God was still there, spurring me on every step of the way.
I’m about to embark on a new adventure, and with it I can’t help but feel that I’m not simply travelling to the other side of the globe, I’m grasping onto my becoming.
I have no idea what the next 12 months holds, but as I travel to a new place, I’m assured of this promise, “I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns,” (Philippians chapter one verse 6, NLT).
No matter where I go, God will still do something new in me. Stepping into something new isn’t about fleeing from the past, it’s about facing the pain because that’s how we move on and become whole. It doesn’t matter where you are, what you’ve done or how broken you feel—God will still do a new thing in you. Just ask.