Going overseas?

In light of the revelation at MYC that freedom is the power to be as you were created to be and that we have been set free from sin so that we may be able to serve God and serve others, I’ve been thinking about decisions. The kinds of decisions that I daydream about are now prefaced with the question, “Is this the best way I can serve God?”

I’ve recently joined a laboratory at uni to do a project during the semester. It’s for credit; instead of taking a class with lectures and labs it’s all self-directed (and supervisor-directed) learning and real lab work. This lab works on cold-adapted archaea, they collect their samples from Antarctica and bring them back to study. Then when they’ve answered some questions and created many more they plan to go back and do more research. They’re planning to go sometime next year, it must be at the end of the year, because I think they go in winter-spring, just before the lakes thaw.

Naturally, I’ve been thinking how cool it would be to go to Antarctica. It would be spectacular to see icebergs and penguins and sea lions. It would probably be very uncomfortable in the cold and layers of clothing. It would probably be fairly stinky too with the lack of facilities, but I keep imagining the photo opportunities. 😛

There’s really no reason to think that I’d have the opportunity to go. I’d be an honours student then (not even necessarily in this lab), which puts a lot of people above me and to take that much time out of the year from an honours project is probably impractical. However, I realised that even if I did have the opportunity, I don’t think I could go. It would take a lot of convincing by people that I respect and trust to go, because all the reasons for going – the photos, the experience – they’re all so selfish. If I were to ask myself what the best way to serve God and others is it would be to stay home – take care of my husband, continue the ministries that I’m already committed to.

I thought this was an interesting direction that my thinking went. I have nothing against travelling and experiencing things per se, but I’d like to see it done in small chunks that don’t just leave everyone you know behind, rather than months or years on end. Unless those years are a more permanent change in which you seek new ministries, that would be a different story. I don’t think this way of thinking causes a sacrifice in happiness either. People tend to say that you should do what you want and do what makes you happy. I think that living in the service of God will bring a joy that is more permanent than any self-satisfying happiness.