Connecting Flights: Finding Purpose in the Journey – Erin Kass {Be Encouraged with Kristina}

Have you ever felt like you were headed in the opposite direction of your goals and dreams? I’m not talking about the times where we know we’re supposed to do one thing and decide to do something else instead. I’m talking about when you feel like you have heard from God about the direction of your life. You come up with a logical ‘point A to point B’ straight line plan to get there. And then God tells you to go to point C…which is way off your A to B course (or even possibly a step backwards!)

You may be in that place now of wondering if you’re gonna be stuck in never never land forever and thinking God has forgotten you’re even there.

Hubby and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary in about six months. Our journey so far has looked nothing like the standard ‘ideal’ progression of life: Graduate high school, graduate college, get a job, get married, move into a house with a white picket fence, have 2.5 kids (or whatever the average is now), continue with life in same job while raising your 2.5 kids…and maybe a dog, cat and/or fish.

Instead, this is a taste of some of our experiences: Live in VA, Live in FL, Live in VA again (for good this time…bought a house), Get out of Navy, Stay in Navy, Multiple separations due to deployments, Deal with severe sickness with long recovery, move our belongings between various storage units, apartments, town homes, and a house a total of 9 times over 6 years.  I apologize if any of you just got nauseated after riding that mini roller coaster ;)

In 2007, before hubby deployed for 6 months, we moved all of our stuff from VA to a small townhouse in FL. At that point, the plan was to get out of the Navy in 2009 when his contract ran out. I was very sick and since we planned to move to FL after the Navy anyway, we went ahead and moved me so I could be near family for support. Fast forward to fall of 2008 and God started revealing to us His ‘revised’ plan for our lives: stay in the Navy and settle in VA for the long term. Talk about a total 180.

One day during that period of realizing God’s new direction for us, I wondered if we had previously missed God. Were we wrong in moving to FL? I didn’t feel as though we had missed Him and at the time my moving was really the best option – there was no way I could’ve survived in VA on my own while hubby was gone. But why in the world did God have us move EVERYTHING to FL, with the mindset to plant ourselves there if He just had us coming back to VA a couple years later?

God often shows up to me through natural and mundane things. (Like in the Trash Talk post I previously shared) In this situation, God showed me that life is a series of connecting flights. If you’ve ever flown or even looked at flight schedules you know that often times you have to go to a city that’s out of the way or even in the opposite direction to catch the flight for your final destination city. (Or if you prefer to maintain contact with the ground at all times, the same theory can apply in car or train travel)

For us, the end destination was life in VA. But in order to be in the mental, emotional and spiritual condition for what God has called us to NOW, we needed to go through the ‘connecting flights’ to gain the experience. All of the back and forth doesn’t make sense in our minds, but as Isaiah 55:9 says, “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think” (The Message)

If you currently feel as though you’re far away from where you think you should be based on what God has shown you, be encouraged! You might just be about to board the flight that will take you to your final destination! (At least until it’s time for the next goal/destination ;) )

Make the decision to enjoy where you are now and pick up all the ‘souvenirs’ you can. They might prove to be very useful in the future.