Do You Look Like Your Passport Photo?

“43 years of living out of a suitcase.”

Among other things, this was how the life of a couple who served God all over the world, was described.

And you would think that having their life described as 43 years of living out of suitcase, they would look much worse than their passport photos!

But they don’t. In fact, they look the exact opposite—that is, they looked like they’ve been living very well in a nice comfy house all their lives. The harsh realities of life that usually show in people’s faces left no marks in theirs. There was nothing in them that gives off a sense of rootlessness or unsettledness. They seem to be people who knew who they were, where they've been, what they’ve done, where they’re at and where they’re going.

Wow.

I’ve lived out of a suitcase for a significant number of years myself—and there are certainly times when I definitely feel like (and, I'm sure, look like) my passport photo! I can’t quite say that like this couple, I have no feeling of unsettledness and rootlessness. Many times I still feel that sense of what’s next--with which I would respond with either an “oh, no!” or an “oh, joy!” Hopefully, more often with the latter than the former.

But then again, I’ve obviously experienced less than what they've been through—or less than what God has put them through to get to where they are at this point in their lives.

I guess too, that there is this matter of attitude and choice on how to take what life dishes out to you. And one thing that life seems to be dishing out to me in heaps is air mileage (and no business class upgrade to show for it!)

Not something my environment-conscious friends will be happy about—polluting the world with my “carbon footprints.”

Carbon footprints aside, I will just make a commitment to myself to choose not to look my passport photo.

And hopefully, after x number of years of living out of a suitcase—and a pink one at that—I can, not only choose to look gazillion times better than my passport photo (through natural means, thank you)—but feel just as good, too!