When the world ends, you and me, we'd just be beginning

For the last six months, my life has been a slow crescendo of dissonance, until last week I could hardly stand to be inside my own head. But everything is quiet now--I had almost forgotten it could be so quiet. All my fear, doubt, guilt, uncertainty, jealousy... it's all over. I was lying in bed when it happened, and I actually said it out loud. It's over.

Tonight, my cousin Becky opened her mission call, and she's going to Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I wished I could communicate to her what she was about to be given, but the Lord reserves the right to surprise us with these things. She's going to be on the other side of the planet--it's 2 pm tomorrow over there, how cool is that--learning things for which nothing here could possibly prepare her, of which she has only the vaguest idea. But she's so on fire, and I felt it spread into me. We are a blessed people, to be given this kind of adventure.

I feel simultaneously envious of her, and more excited about my own mission. For the first time in my life, I feel like there isn't enough time in the day to accomplish everything I want, and it doesn't feel stressful at all. I can never get my money's worth out of the buffet either, but it's still nice to know that it's all-you-can-eat.

--Kevin