The one metaphor that best describes Life? A JOURNEY. Am hard-pressed to think of any notables that God called and a journey didn’t follow.

Abraham, our father of the Faith, trekked from the familiar, from Harran, and made his home in the promised land “like a stranger in a foreign country,” wrote the author of Hebrews. His grandson, Jacob, fled into the desert to escape the wrath of his brother Esau, or so he thought, only to journey into himself. Joseph, Abraham’s great grandson, was frogmarched to Egypt by the Midianites, after his brothers sold him. Moses and Joshua led a whole nation on a 40 year trek through the desert. Paul, the Apostle, accumulated hitch-hike miles on three career-long missionary journeys. And what shall we say of Jonah? God called him to go 800km East of his hometown. No, not quite for this reluctant, defiant evangelist. He boarded a ship that was going to the extreme, farthest opposite – 4000km to the West!

Today, 8 years ago, on a rainy, wintry afternoon, we landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi – a most unlikely destination for us. The “Plan” was to stay two years, establish the business and go “Home.” But the God of journeys had other plans. (Life is what happens while we are making our fine little plans.) The land of our sojourn has quickly become home.

The journey of life is traveled only once. No dress rehearsals, no recaps. Oftentimes, the long-winded journey of life throws surprises our way. And for every life, there is bound to be intractable moments of anguish: long, winding roads that invariably lead us away from home; far removed from the comforts that the familiar affords us. It’s at these crossroads that we must remember that God is good. And that there is joy in the journey. #Thankful