Preparing to be unprepared

As many of you know, I am preparing for a mission "scouting" trip to Russia. I will be meeting Russian pastors who are working to grow communities of faith, hear about their struggles and successes, and explore ways that The Gathering can collaborate with them in their work. My intention is to return in 2009 with a team of 12 people from The Gathering to be in mission to these emerging church communities in Russia. So I am taking up my infrequent habit of blogging, with the hopes that my friends, family and parishioners will share this experience with me.

As all of you know, a journey really begins long before you leave home. I get a bit anxious about traveling, so I like to be prepared. Having never traveled abroad, the unique considerations and preparations for this kind of trip are new to me. Being a product of the educational system for 20 years of my life, my first inclination was to read books and talk to others who have previously traveled to Russia. Books and conversations have been extremely helpful. I have studied maps of Moscow and Voronezh, read about the culture, learned some handy travel tips from international travel veterans, bought too much cool stuff at REI and even tried my luck at learning a bit of Cyrillic. But no matter how many people I talk with, or how many books I read, there are somethings you only learn by experience.

I think life with God is that way. Many of us think about God, ask others questions about God, study those "people of faith" like an anthropologist would study a remote tribe. We can be tempted to approach God as a subject to be studied instead of a reality to be experienced, a discipline to be practiced or a being to be loved. The truth is, as much as I prepare for my trip to Russia, I will still be unprepared. I just have to go and experience it. God is that way. You are never prepared for what life with God might be like, and you will not "understand" faith until you first go, and experience it.