Wednesday, June 30, 2010

4 Days left in NZ


My time to leave New Zealand has come up quickly. I will update my blog and you in more detail soon, but right now i would just appreciate your prayers as i try to connect and end this time well over these next couple of days. I leave this Monday at 12:15pm NZ time.

NZ and my involvement in the future are still heavily in my prayers as well but nothing has been decided.
As for my immediate next steps:
July 5-9- Australia for a few days to process the transition back home
Mid July- Family vacation in North Carolina
July 31- My ordination in Indiana
August- Potentially start a job stateside

Thank you so much for your involvement and support in my life.
Brent Dongell

Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

Friday, June 18, 2010

Life is Like the Game Rush Hour

I was reading Purpose Driven Life a few years ago and it asked the question, "What is your life metaphor?" ie. "Life is rollercoaster full of ups and downs," "Life is a sport with a goal, strategy, and objective," "life is garden dig it," etc.

I concluded that mine was, "life is a game" back in the day.

Well today i decided, I feel like "My life is like the game Rush Hour." I used to play this game when i was bored at my grandparents farm and loved it.

If you don't know the game, I put an example below. The goal is to get the red car through the gap on the side of the board that it is facing, but you have to move the other cars forward and backwards to make this possible.
I feel like this is how and why i am constantly processing life. It is like there is this clear objective of living this life well, but to do that seems like a big puzzle that sometimes you have to take a step back and look at and other times you have to just keep watching and moving the pieces around until it starts to make sense.

Either way, it definitely all seems like fun and games until your patience runs out and you get frustrated with all of the obstacles in the way or how much time you have spent trying to figure out something so stupid and you just want to walk away and call the game dumb because your frustration has won over. i am tempted with this thought a lot. Life seeming too much or the frustrations of figuring out life not always feeling like they are worth it, but once i have started something, i hate not finishing it. Also most of us have learned that pain and struggle are often worth it and sometimes more rewarding than when they are lacking.

All this to say, there is a lot to process and do in these last couple of weeks in New Zealand. Sometimes i am tempted to call my execution planning stupid because i don't know how to piece these last couple of weeks together, but i try and remember the fun parts of this game we call life and to keep moving around and loving people and being loved by people as it all just seems to make sense and come together in the end.