Separation Anxiety?

(Mom & me in St. Louis this May)

As I prepare to leave for Australia in just a few weeks, the reality of being separated from family (Mom in particular, since we've been roommates for so long now) has only just begun to set in. It's easy to expect to be separated from friends or family that you see once or twice a year (or less), but it's something else entirely to realize that the one person who has been the constant and stable person your WHOLE life (with a mom, this is actually literal!) will no longer be a daily part of your life...


But Mom and I came to the understanding, a long time ago, that we would be parted for pretty much the rest of our lives. When God called me to missions, we knew it would be this way. When God called Mom to missions, we realized, all the more, that it would be this way.

People have asked why Mom and I aren't going together. Others have asked how I can stand leaving my whole family--my whole life--behind to go to a country that I have spent so little time in. Others have indicated that they think I'm awfully icy to leave my family and friends, saying that I love another country, and HAVE to go...

And these comments hurt. They make me miss Mom all the more. They make me feel like something's wrong with my relationship with Mom--that I could leave her...

BUT then I think of the missionaries going to the other parts of the world 75+ years ago. Many of them packed all of their belongings into coffins, expecting never to return (and to only live a few years while on the mission field). Hudson Taylor left for China, and said good-bye to his mother, both of them fully never expecting to see each other again. He was willing to make that sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel--and so was his mother.

AND I rejoice--because though Mom and I (and my brothers, their wives and kids) will be far away from each other, I have the wonderful technology of Skype, facebook, email, cellphones, MagicJack and others to still keep in touch with them--even video calls. And I can fly to the USA (or Mom can) to see family again every so often.

So--though I may have separation anxiety a bit, knowing that Mom will be recovering from major surgery while I'm not around, and that she'll be in Argentina when I return to the USA this September, I can rejoice in the privilege that God has given me: that I may sacrifice my own desires and hopes to serve Him as a missionary on a foreign field.

This week's challenge: Has God called you to sacrifice something in order to obey Him? Has God directed you to do something that others see as ludicrous, unhealthy or unreasonable? If so, are you doing it? If you're not--why not? Isn't HE worth making any sacrifice He's called you to?

(Verse of the week: Luke 14:26-27 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple...")