I don’t know how long I will remain in West Virginia. But I am beginning to understand why staying matters. Not because this place is perfect, but because I am not. And it is here—among these hills, these people, and these limits—that God is asking me to become someone new. Not somewhere else. Not someday... here.

It is important to consider that borders do not come from God; they are man-made constructs. They are nothing less than the result of humanities struggle to get along. In short, borders are the direct result of our seemingly inability to love one another. If we acknowledge then that borders are the result of our own sinful nature then perhaps we might not cling to them so tightly.

To do so would have been dangerous to my own soul because I would have believed that my truest self had arrived. Nothing would be further from the truth. My credentialed self would have arrived, but my true self would have remained lost. To wrap one’s identity in that which is fleeting is the beginning of the illusion. The truest profession you can have is your own self, with all the joys and flaws that come with it.