Sunsets

Posted by Morgan
There are a lot of different things that I could write about tonight: my frustrations with ResLife at Lee, my current living situation and all that it entails, my classes that make me want to cry, my current desire for money to grow on trees so everyone can stop stressing out about it, or lesson on love and patience that I am apparently in the middle of being taught. All of these things could be a blog post in and of themselves, but tonight, my focus has been redirected, and rightly so.


I spent the last few minutes reading IMPACT 360's blog about the Brazil trip and a post by one of the current student made me instantly flash back to my recent trip to Lebanon and I was struck once again by the importance of that trip and the lessons I learned while there.
Because of the layout of the city of Beirut, we spent a lot of time in the car traveling. As you can see in the picture above, there is not a lot of green. They exploit their land. The city is on the coast (obviously) and there are many mountains and that doesn't stop the building process. There are homes, apartment complexes, and businesses build into the side of mountains. With this in mind, you must understand that because of the way everything is built, if you are up on a mountain you must go down in order to get anywhere else - there is no such thing as cutting across; it's just not laid out like that.


All of that being said, we spend a lot of time in the car and I was privileged to get to see some breathtaking sights. One of my favorite rides was on the way to and from the "Our Lady of Lebanon" statue. In Lebanon the sun starts to go down around 3:30 in the afternoon, which is pretty early compared to what I'm used to. The ride to the statue was one of the most direct paths we took on our entire trip. We just climbed up and up and up and while we were speeding up, we got to see the most breathtaking sight. My mom asked if I was going to try and get a picture and I said no, and that I simply wanted to enjoy it. And that's exactly what I did. We had this amazing view of the ocean and the city. My words seem to be falling so short in description, but if you look at how poorly I am describing this scene, it obviously must have been something magnificent, and it was. On the way back down from the statue, the sun was setting, and it was absolutely flawless. Words truly cannot describe a sunset over the Mediterranean. 


I was listening to a song by Addison Road and I was just taken aback and how blessed and privileged I was to be doing what I was doing. I mean, I was in the MIDDLE EAST. Does that click with people?? The Middle East. We were in the heart of the world. Words cannot describe what my heart was feeling in that moment. It was completely surreal, and for a moment it felt like I was in a dream, a long, beautiful dream. It sounds corny, but it's true. I knew in that moment that I wanted to make the most of this trip. Soak up every second and every experience. I didn't want to miss a single thing that God has for me. The trip was not all sunshine and butterflies, believe me, but there is a different kind of fulfillment that comes when you are solely focused on others. The energy that you find to keep going comes straight from the Lord - and you know it. 


Singing Harmony,
Morgan
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