Safe Haven

Occasionally there are times that words are laid on my heart and simply will not go away, and most of the time it is just a simple phrase that keeps being played over and over. The phrase will follow me around and I will hear it continuously repeating itself, until I make the decision to do something about it. Usually I test out the phrase, walking around without sitting down and asking what this phrase wants to say--what is God asking me to share? I actually tested this phrase out in a post that I tried to attempt to write last week but it just wouldn't materialize, so I left it and I haven't opened that post since. The phrase wants to be used it just didn't quite fit into that post. Now I am going to forewarn you--I don't really think this phrase or post will have much meat or meaning to it--but you never know it could really come out and surprise me. So here it goes.I have been abroad a few times and what I have come to notice about myself is how I recognize myself. The first thing you often ask, when meeting new people is: where are you from? And the first thing many people realize about me is that I am American--then they will usually ask where from in the US? (Fun Fact: I often get asked if I am from the West Coast, I guess I have a valley girl accent?) But what I have come to realize about myself is that I resonate with being an American, it is like my overarching label, my nationality. But I really resonate and connect with the fact that I am from the Southern Region of the United States; that I am a proud, born and raised, true Southern (American) Belle (feel free to read that in your finest and thickest Southern accent). Then I resonate that I am from Charleston, then that I am from South Carolina. My Southern roots are something that I will hold near and dear to my heart and will be proud of till the day I die. You can take the girl out of the South but you can not take the South out of the girl. I often feel like a hybrid: a modern, strong, independent and feminist woman with a set of certain traditional values that I will not back down on. I usually don't have a thick Southern accent, but believe me that sucker will come out if you make me mad. Certain country songs tug at my heart--and that low country coastline will always scream home to me.You are probably wondering why I am rambling on about my Southern roots. Well, Charleston and the South is my home, my safe haven. It is the place that I feel comfortable, safe and at home. Charleston is a thin place for me, it is a place that I really can feel God's presence. If I am being blunt, it is a place that I don't really have to be brave, because I have my family, my support group and my friends to help me be brave. I walk and drive around here, one of my favorite places to drive to is over to Isle of Palms and drive from there to Sullivan's Island and back, last night I saw the most beautiful Mount Pleasant/Charleston sky as I made that drive--the palm trees and docks were black against a light orange twilight sky, and I felt it. I felt the tug that is so hard to feel--I knew this wasn't going to last. I want so badly to see my life here, to see my future being worked out here--who wouldn't? Charleston is beautiful and it is so comfortable for me. But as a dear friend told me once, God doesn't call us to be comfortable. I look at all that is familiar and comforting and I know that it is only mine for a little bit longer. Soon I will be back on a plane flying back to Scotland, away from all that is comfortable and easy.I love Scotland, it is one of the only places that I have been that I could really actually see making a life there and considering it a home. But going back is hard for me, I love being home and being physically close to my family. However, no matter how hard I look here to see my future--I can't see it, and that is because God is not stirring things here. Charleston is a place for me to come home and lay my head, to rest a while in the comfort of my family's arms and to feel God's presence and regain my strength--a safe haven. I know where God is calling me, and that is back to Scotland. God is stirring things there, my future is in Scotland I have to answer that call. I am excited to go back, to continue this journey that God is leading me on, but that does not mean that I won't miss the peace that Charleston and her natural beauty has to offer me.I have just finished reading Let's All Be Brave: Living Life With Everything You Have by Annie Downs. It is a book about taking chances and being brave enough to say yes to what God is asking you to do. I know I am being asked to be brave and to continue this journey, to trust in the plan that God has created for me and to believe in myself. Annie Downs seems like a woman I could get along with, she actually felt God's call to Scotland herself, she lived in one of my favorite cities, Edinburgh! I am telling you, God has the greatest sense of humor!My words are not very profound, but the phrase wanted to be said. My heart squeezes with pain at having to leave my safe haven, but I am being called to trust God, and by this point I have learned that it is just easier to try and go ahead and trust God.Genesis 28:15"I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."This is the verse that I have heard whispered over and over again since I made this decision to go to Scotland. And I am clinging to this truth. God has me in the palms of his hands and in truth that is my safe haven. Maybe I will end back up here in Charleston or in South Carolina or maybe just back in the US. Or maybe I will end up in Scotland. Who knows! But right now--I am called to go back to Scotland.I am not sure where in your life God is calling you to be brave and step out of your comfort zone. But listen to God, to what he is calling you do and as Annie Downs says--say yes!May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Peace, Joy, Love and Blessings--Margaret