Not All Who Wander Are Lost- Though Sometimes, You Are.

I like to think of myself as a nomad, a wanderer of sorts. If I stay somewhere too long, I get antsy, ready to move on to the next place, the next adventure, the next moment of excitement. I thrive on change. Change is almost a constant in my life (and when I can't get any kind of significant change, I cut my bangs. Hence the bang debacle of 2011.)

After High School, I wandered to Boston.

And that summer I wandered  to Camp Woodmont, and then back to Boston again.

And during my sophomore year I almost wandered to the Disney College Program- but found myself instead wandering across the ocean to spend a semester living in a castle.

And then I wandered to North Carolina to work at a fat camp.

Then it was back to Boston- where I wandered from two different apartments in the same city.

And before I knew it, I was wandering across stage at graduation in my cowboy boots,

And packing up a U-Haul  and driving back to Atlanta to start a whole new adventure teaching second grade.

And somehow, in all that wandering, I found myself wandering away from the relationship that I should have been running towards- my relationship with the Lord.

It didn't take a lot for me to wander away from Him. A few parties here and there, sleeping in on Sundays, a new world that I had never experienced before- and it all seemed so - wonderful. And so exciting. And so fun.

And it was- I had an amazing four years full of experiences I could not have had anywhere else, and opportunities to grow and push myself outside of my comfort level(Not to mention I got to be a youtube senstation for about .5 seconds).

But still, I had wandered. And as a person who is perpetually lost knows, it's a lot easier to lose your direction then to get back where you were headed before you took that wrong turn.

But thankfully, I've got a God who is better then any GPS or search and rescue dog, who can find  Waldo ad mist a see of red and white striped turtlenecks.

It tell us in Nehemiah 1-

" Even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them up from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name".

We have a God that literally will go to the ends of the Earth to bring us back to his presence.

We have a God that knows no limits on his love- as far as the East is from the West, he will gather us up so we can dwell and abide with him.

We have a God- I have a God, that even though I wandered, and even though I went on my own path, cared enough about me that He would put me in a situation that turned me around and sent me running, no, sprinting, back into His arms.

And I have a God that opened those same arms up as though I'd never been gone.

And even now, as I've wandered to yet another city, to have yet another adventure, He is the constant in my life, a consistency that even a nomad like me needs.

A constant and unchanging love- even when I spontaneously cut off all my bangs.