“Oh the places you’ll go!” Dr. Seuss believed that the true achiever is an adventurer: “You’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air. Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.”
“We’re taking a vision trip to Florida,” our friends shared. Tired of the heat of the Sonoran Desert, they set out to find the perfect place for their family to settle. I’ve been part of several similar conversations. It’s healthy for couples to dream together. I’ve seen God weave those dreams into something that honors him and blesses others.
But don’t underestimate the negative impact such dreaming can have.
The dangers of wanderlust
First, consider how sharing your desire to move might affect your friendships. I admit I find myself wrestling to invest in relationships where it seems like the other person won’t be around for long. A few who have shared their desire to move have also shared how difficult it’s been to build relationships. These two issues might be connected.
Second, consider how carping on the place that your local friends have chosen to live might impact them. Many chose the place they live because they love it. I love Tucson. I appreciate the Sonoran Desert, the five gorgeous mountain ranges that encircle the city. I enjoy the flora and fauna of the desert. I appreciate the climate and our radiant sunsets. When someone whines about the heat or the lack of green, I can feel a distance grow between us due to divided appreciation for our shared natural habitat. You’ve probably heard the colloquial phrase, “Don’t yuck someone’s yum.” Appreciating and embracing where God has placed you might actually help you draw nearer to others.
Third, ingratitude is dangerous. Despite being rescued from slavery, the Israelites grumbled their way through the wilderness. Grumbling is an act of faithlessness arising from a heart which refuses to see God as one worthy of trust and places one’s hope in one’s circumstances. That faithlessness culminated in their unbelief of God’s power to give them the Promised Land. “Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword?” (Num. 14:3), the Israelites complained after receiving aggrandized reports from the spies of the Promised Land. The Lord’s displeasure and judgement of the Israelites for their unfaithfulness resulted in a 40 year punishment further banning them from the Promised Land: “And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die” (Num. 14: 33-35). God might be preparing you for your own Promised Land. But beware of grumbling in the wilderness. Let trust with gratitude be the antidote: “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thes. 5:18).
Finally, it’s rare to meet someone dreaming about their next destination who is also giving themselves wholeheartedly to where God has them today. When God sent Israel into exile, he also promised that one day he will restore them. But in the meantime, God didn’t tell Israel to just tolerate it. No, God told Israel to invest in the land of their captivity: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jer. 29:7). We aren’t called merely to tolerate the place God has called us, but to seek its welfare, invest in it, and make it thrive.
The promise of God
In Oh the Places You’ll Go, Dr. Seuss speaks of a confusion and gloom. This “useless place” is what he calls “the waiting place.” He tries to assure you that “Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying.”
Beware of escaping that waiting place. It might be exactly where God is calling you and wants to meet you. “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” (Lam. 3:25). God always desires your good. That might be somewhere new in the future, but I promise you it’s also right now where you are. Don’t let wanderlust steal the life God has placed before you because “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6).
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Photo by Martin Kallur (IG: @mkallur) on Unsplash