On Sunday, I - along with a group of 8 and a professor from Luther Seminary - will be traveling to Egypt for two weeks. As I prepare for the trip, I find it a bit different from my preparation for Israel/Palestine. All of these countries experience tensions along political and religious lines. Why I am attracted to such places, I cannot yet articulate.
Preparing to travel without Ben to a place experiencing unrest, however, has been an emotional journey. As we discuss the excitement and anxiety that comes with being apart (even when we are not traveling) and the anxiety that comes as we have the conversations regarding the worst-case scenarios, I find myself wondering if I truly live the faith I confess. In the end, a confession is nothing other than a life lived; thus, I find myself confessing that I believe God knows my waking and my sleeping, my coming in and my going out, and has numbered my days according to God's purpose. I am compelled to live by the promises in Psalm 121 and 139.
We do not walk into faith, we stumble into it. It is faith that tells us - when we believe we have no strength left - that we do not live according to our strength, but according to power that is made perfect in weakness. We live in the strength of God, which makes foolish our attempts to protect our lives by refusing to live. Please pray for safety for all those living in places of unrest and all of those traveling to places of unrest. Pray for the faith of those who refuse to live in fear and those who refuse to live because of fear. Pray for peace.
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