Why do I want to get out?

I love my home, my neighbors, my town, and my church. Why do I want to get out of here? I grew up in Brentwood, went to the local high school, and married a nice boy from right down the street. We moved away for eleven years and had a great adventure moving eight times. No matter where I was or how much I loved the area and friends, I always focused on moving home to my family and my hometown. It's a great place to raise three kids-safe, convenient, fantastic schools, and growing. We have all four grandparents right around the corner and aunts and uncles too! It's perfect! Right?

I discovered a different world when I went on a mission trip with our youth group from Brentwood United Methodist Church. Common story, I know. But it's what you do when you get home that changes your world. BUMC is a place where kids are privileged. Some of them know it and some of them don't - they feel entitlement. Both kinds of kids were on this mission trip and they all came home different, just like me. I told them I was jealous that they got to learn this lesson so early in life. I was almost forty years old and I just "got it." I just saw what Jesus Would Do as the bracelets and bumper stickers are always pointing out. I got to be Jesus and live for others. First, it was New Orleans disaster relief and then the real bomb, Juarez, Mexico. I will never be the same after serving and working alongside one Mexican family as we worked together to build them a home and change their lives. I want to be out there but now I want to do it in Nashville, 10 miles down the street, where a whole other world is living a very different life. I'll talk next time about what I'm doing out in the world and I hope you will tell me what gives you the goosebumps!