{THIS is next, so stop asking}

Dearest readers, due to how many questions I am still getting on the subject, I think it's time I spelled this out clearly.

I am not: going to college again (I graduated, remember?), planning any more missions work overseas, headed back to Nicaragua anytime soon, in a relationship which will end in marriage and babies within the next year, or attempting to find a full-time job with benefits and a 401k option.
In my last post I talked about the unique advantage I have being young but out of school and with what I consider more life experience than your average 21-year-old. It sounds ideal, right? However, I am also realizing one of the negatives about coming back to the life I had before I left the States last September - having to deal with the expectations of people who assumed that my time in Nicaragua would be a launching pad for a future life in overseas missions. When I explain that for right now (and yes, potentially for the rest of my life) I believe God wants me here, I get "the look". That disapproving look that says "oh, you couldn't possibly have heard God correctly then, because there's no adventure here. You can't be serving Him with all your heart HERE." I already have to battle those thoughts popping into my mind, but it's worse to hear it from others. In fact, I've had that said to me more than once, though not in those exact words... and as much as I'd like to let it roll off me (because I honestly believe they are well-meaning), that hurts.
Isn't it enough that I went? Isn't it enough that I learned? And isn't it enough that I'm doing my best to live it out now?
There's nothing I can point to on the horizon and say "that's next." My life right now, THIS is next. Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there with open arms and open eyes... (props if you got the music reference)

{Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I still trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. ~ Galatians 1:10}