Leaving Eden

I was driving in the car one day and a song came on over the radio. I listened to it and it tugged at my heart. A while later I randomly decided to look the song up on YouTube. I found a clip where the singer talks about the song and asks a few questions to go with it. The song is “Leaving Eden” by Brandon Heath. His questions and discussion got me thinking and I want to share those thoughts with you.

Leaving Eden Conversation

My Eden: My Eden is pretty predictable if you know me at all.  Thailand is my Eden. You need to understand that Thailand itself isn’t my Eden, nor was my life in Thailand perfect. It holds for me, though, an emotional sense of peace and innocence. It was a time where all was right. I was surrounded by poverty, spiritual depravity, evil, and lost people, but my own little world was perfect. I felt safe and I lived in a close knit community where I knew everyone and they all knew me. My heart was full, my life secure, my family whole, and my future known. And then I grew up.

My Apple: This is the hardest one for me to pin point. The more I think about it, though, the more I am convinced that my apple is the media. It is the current culture. Brandon asked in the clip “what is stealing your innocence.” Over the last couple years, I’ve begun to realize that the more I am exposed to pop culture and media, the more I lose my innocence. I love music, movies, etc. but I have come to realize that much of what you watch and listen to can be detrimental to your emotional and spiritual health. See, the sad thing is that I can’t escape from it. Even when I stop watching certain movies and listening to certain music, there are magazines, billboards, and other things screaming at you from every direction. It can also be hard when your peers are into the things you are trying to pull away from. There are just some things I wish I didn’t know; that I could erase from my memory. But I can’t.

My Heart: Missions. This is something where you could look at me and say, “She is only into missions because her parents are missionaries.” And that has some truth. My parent’s choice to be missionaries did shape me in many ways, but the passion for missions that I have is definitely my own. I love God, and I love people. God has commissioned us to spread the gospel and disciple the nations and I take that very seriously.

I can’t share my heart without saying that my heart is also this: children. Nothing makes me happier than interacting with a child. Put me in a room with a child and leave me with him/her alone, and I will be completely content.

So I’ve shared my Eden, Apple, and Heart. What is yours?

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