tan lines fade.

Before a soak (the lower set of feet are mine)

When I returned from South Sudan, I had perfect tan lines on my wrists from my watch and Toposa bracelet that I wore every single day in Toposaland.  I also had perfect Chaco’s tan lines on my feet. 

I admit, those tan lines made me pretty proud.  I’d been somewhere.  I’d done something.  I’d had an adventure of a lifetime. 

I hoped those tan lines would draw questions.  I hoped people would see and wonder. (Kind of silly, considering how no one studies wrists or the tops of feet in making conversation or meeting someone new!)  I hoped they’d stay forever, a reminder to me of where I’d been and what I’d experienced and a message to everyone in the world that I had a story to tell.  And a story that was worth listening to.

But they are fading.  If I really wanted to, I could try to keep them!  I could wear that same watch and a Toposa bracelet and even adorn my feet with my Chaco’s and then go stand outside in the sun every morning and afternoon for hours and hours and hours. 

But the truth is that wherever I go, I will and I must adapt to my surroundings to survive and more so, to thrive.  I never wore and will never wear Chaco’s on a daily basis in America, and I only took and only needed three pairs of shoes in Sudan.

Tan lines fade.  But the mark of Sudan remains.  Maybe not on the outside.  Along with the change to my tan lines, my hair is already nicer and cleaner and darker, and my feet don’t smell as bad and aren’t threatened by thorns.  My stomach doesn’t face all the things it did (especially those unseen things I’ll never know about), and my body doesn’t have to fight malaria. 

But my heart and mind will never be the same because of the time I spent in South Sudan.  Tan lines fade.  But my stories remain.  And I am here, by His grace, to tell them. 

And there will be new tan lines ahead.  I have started wearing shorts again, which by the way feels very strange after being in a place where those were considered indecent.  And though tanning is hard for me in general, you can already see a little difference in the colors on my legs!  And this is just the beginning of my first American summer in two years.

I’ll stand in the sun here as I did there and soak it up as much as I can.  But I think I’ll do it for another reason.  Not so I can get tan lines, to show off what I’ve done or who I am or what I’ve been through.  No!  The point is to BE, fully, where I am; it is to BE in the moment, and not miss what’s happening around me right now.  Soaking up sunshine means pouring out all of me into the relationships with people in the place where I am living, whether it’s in South Sudan or El Paso, Texas, USA. 

Life is about learning.  I want to be a lifelong learner.  Constantly soaking up new information to then share it with others.  And just as I learned new things everyday under the sun of Toposaland, I also learn, or re-learn, things here on a daily basis.

Things like how…there are such things as tape dispensers.  They cut tape perfectly straight on the edge.  Or that...hotels offer complimentary toiletries to guests.  If you forget something, it’s ok!  They’ll help you out.  And even some things that make me long for Sudan…like the fact that light pollution here makes the night sky less starry and the moon foggier than in Sudan, where the moon is like a spotlight in the sky and the stars really are like diamonds.

So, here’s to fading tan lines and new adventures and old stories and new sunshine!  Here’s to learning and learning more and sharing and sharing more!  Here’s to following Jesus—as I am, right where I am!

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord, not for men”  

Colossians 3:23

“May His name endure forever; may it continue as long as the sun.  Then all nations will be blessed through Him, and they will call Him blessed.”  

Psalm 72:17