It's been a pleasant surprise how much encouragement we've received from the Lord since we've been in Japan. I feel like prayers are being answered... and possibly even prayers I didn't know I needed answered but God is fulfilling just the same.
The best part about Japan is the relationships we've started fresh from scratch and the friendships we have continued from where we've left off.
The hardest part about Japan has been the confrontation I've had with my own self. I think in America I can ignore my faults and "respectable sins" more easily because I'm not constantly fighting off blasting humidity, cultural difference, food choices that I'm not used to anymore, people not knowing who I am, me not knowing people.... etc. etc. All the things you've heard about life overseas. But alas, it's not the things that truly bother me. It's who I become when they bother me. Super whiny! Super uptight (ew) and majoring on minors. It's enough to make a grown girl puke! All this to say... the hardest part of Japan is realizing that I don't respond to "uncomfort" in the best possible way. It's been a battle raging within my heart to win for Jesus because usually I can just ignore my issues. But here in a foreign country they flare up more.
Feeling like a baby at 27 is humbling. Telling students I'm 27 is humbling. But the encouraging thing about all of this is that God does not want us to remain where we are at. I have sin. I've been getting uptight more often (which is SO sad for me because deep down I don't care about the issue. I just make it a bigger issue because I'm in a different place).
*sigh* Don't you wish you could have those cool "hidden sins"? Where everyone thinks you have it all together? Sometimes I think this way but then I realize that if I thought I had it all together, I would believe I have it all together then I wouldn't believe I have a need for Jesus to work in me. So knowing your issues can be good. Knowing your issues can mean knowing you have issues which means you have a need for mercy. And Someone to be able to give you mercy who isn't full of issues themselves. So don't keep things hidden. Let God work it out through whatever circumstance He has ordained whether it be spouse, foreign culture, co-workers, friends, traffic etc. and for God's sake (literally) don't ignore it.
Face your issues or guess what?
They'll come back to bite you!
Thank you Lord that you don't let us stay in our own self-centeredness. Thank You for the reminder that You are and always will be everything. Sustainer. Provider.
1 comment:
First of all, that food looks tasty and I LOVE the happy face in the rice :)
Second of all, thanks for this honest post friend. I just read Nicole's blog and she said the same thing - being overseas/in a foreign environment brought out some difficult sides they didn't know where there.
I'm glad you are where you are - even though it's hard - because it's bringing about REFINEMENT which grows you girl. You will be changed, renewed, sin skimmed off, and healthy in the end of this purging. Actually - when does it really end?
Love you from here friend, miss you!
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