Missing It with Jillian

Contributed by:
Eric Dunaway
small groups pastor

Tonight is an unusual night... it's not like I haven't been in similar situations before, but it always feels a little weird when it comes around. Amanda's in the living room watching Losing It with Jillian... I'm not watching it, or else I'd be losing it with Jillian. In stead, I'm finishing the bills. In a little bit, we'll go to sleep. And then tomorrow, I'll fly several thousand miles away, and leave them at home... and I'll be gone for a little over two weeks.


I don't want to over dramatize this... people travel all the time. Two weeks is a long time, but I think about the men and women who get deployed over seas for months at a time to serve our country. So, that's not really the intent behind this post. The intent is to share with you the challenge that God has placed on my heart.

As I've said, I've been here before. In 2005 I left for a three week mission in Taiwan. The past two years, I've gone to the Dominican Republic for week long trips. So this has become a regular thing. Last year when I was in the Dominican, however, I realized something that filled me with a sense of regret... when I'm absent from my family, I struggle to be present in the moment. And it's in those moments when God is trying to get my attention. My biggest fear is that I've missed so much because I haven't allowed myself to be fully present in his presence.

As I travel to Serbia, I know that God has some pretty big plans for our team. We'll be blessed to serve the Serbian church as we work together to reach the teens in their community. He's already challenged us in so many ways. He's already teaching us so much! My fear is that I'll get over there and fail to really allow myself to hear what God wants to teach me because my thoughts are somewhere else... namely on my wife and kids.

God laid this passage on my heart sometime last week:

If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison - your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot by my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26-27

Over the next couple of weeks, I know that I'll be coming back to this passage. And as I travel and engage in this amazing opportunity, my prayer is that God will watch over my family, protect them, and give them peace... and then turn my heart towards his presence and what he's teaching me in those moments. I truly want to fall more deeply in love with him so that when I return, I can love my family more fully.

In light of that, I'm already looking forward to our return.