Third Culture Kids: Nomads or Pilgrims

Disclaimer: This thought is still very fresh and rough, mirrored in my frenzied writing. 

This idea first sprang into my head because of watching a marionette version of 'The Pilgrim's Progress' with some good friends, and sprouted because of a video I saw, ironically with an excerpt from Pilgrim's Progress. here.

I had considered myself a nomad on this earth, and to a certain extent I am. To be a nomad is to wander. Traditionally nomads wandered to places where their flocks could find food, but in my circumstance, it merely meant 'to wander'. It seemed to epitomize my life experiences. I was born in a place that I do not remember, spent a significant amount of my life traveling to a few different countries, and now, now I am again restless in the place where I currently am. And yet, defining myself as a nomad seemed to condescend a hopeless manner upon myself. As if in desperation I travelled, as if I were always looking for another patch of grass, a new diversion, a different culture, never to be fully satisfied.

And yet I see where the term 'nomad' correctly defines many people like myself. For they do wander, seemingly aimlessly or with superficial goal in mind. And now as I think about it all, I realize that I need not merely wander from place to place, to leave no footprint on the earth save the course that I travel. For I have more to hope for than to wander. I am traveling to somewhere, and all the places that I travel are simply byroads. In Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary, he defines a pilgrim as "a wanderer; a traveller; particularly, one that travels to a distance from his own country to visit a holy place. In Scripture, one who has only a temporary residence on earth. Hebrews 11."

This is what I am. I have a temporary residence on this earth, I am a wanderer who is traveling. But traveling to where? I suppose we must all settle in our own minds where we are traveling to, but as for me, I am traveling to God's heavenly dwelling, exploring bits of His Kingdom along the way, whether that leads me to Eastern Europe, America, Africa, Asia, it matters not, for the Kingdom of God is not a matter of geography or ethnicity or religion, but of righteousness, peace, and joy. And this is what matters in life.

I am a pilgrim on a journey to God's heavenly dwelling, and will indulge myself in seeking His Kingdom until I arrive home.