One of the things that excites me the most about Memphis is having an awesome church to go to.
This year in Korea has forced us to grow leaps and bounds in the spiritual sense. I feel like we are completely different today than we were when we first stepped off the plane eleven months ago. We have been forced to trust the Lord: for relationships, for finances, for direction, for favor.
There is a line in Francis Chan's book Crazy Love that says, "Lukewarm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to.... They don't genuinely seek out what life God would have them live - they have life figured and mapped out.... The truth is, their lives wouldn't look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God."
I am ashamed to say that this quote almost perfectly defines our life before Korea.
If we were short on finances, we worked more hours or got help through other methods. We rarely prayed over decisions or difficulties because we had friends to whom we could vent. Who needs to spend tons of time doing personal Bible studies when there's a perfectly good church with an educated pastor who will tell me everything I need to know?
But in Korea, spiritually speaking, we have had no provision from the outside. Although we attend church several times a week and listen to sermon after sermon, everything is in Korean. We don't have weekly prayer meetings or social Bible studies. We can't visit a friend to "ask for prayer" about our problems.
We have been forced to rely completely on God. Speaking for myself, I have read more books, spent more time in the Word, prayed more desperate prayers than ever before. Not because I'm a "good Christian" who is extremely disciplined, but because I have been absolutely starving for it.
While this year has made me more desperate for personal, intimate time with Jesus, I am now THRILLED at the thought of going to an ENGLISH church with "real" worship and good teaching! I am even more thrilled at the prospect of making new Christian friends - married couples, with children - that attend this church. Thrilled, I tell ya!
I hope and pray that we will continue to rely on God as much in the states as we have in Korea, but I'm also very very very very very excited about having some support in that area. Thrilled. That's just the best word for it.
So, yup. There's no real point to this post except to say, yeah, I'm pretty thrilled about the upcoming changes.
Seacrest, out!
1 comment:
You posted this for me, silly! We are facing a difficult time and I feel like I can identify with your post today. The University is forcing it's employees to take 6 days off without pay. We get paid monthly, so we will be missing one day's pay for 6 months in a row. At first that didn't sound so bad until I figured out that it will be around $120.00. We live one one income and God provides for our needs, but we don't have any money left over for savings, clothes buying, etc. So the thought of being down that much is daunting to say the least. I already try to prepare cheap meals and am as frugel as I know how to be. But anyway, the point is, like you what makes sense to me is to try to make more money. Darin has looked to try to get a second job to no avail (so far). My next thought is to cut what spending I can. So I know I can quit coloring my hair, and quit getting hair cuts. That will help some. How about TV? Well, they have that rigged to where we can't quit that until next July because we have a commitment time to fulfill. Argh! I feel I have to do SOMETHING but I am finding that I am really not able to do much to help with this situation.
Then I read your post and it hits me that now I am FORCED to sit back and see what God will do. Here is where it shows that I don't have much faith - I am afraid He won't do anything. Even though He has provided for us throughout the years. I must be brain damaged. So in some ways it is neat that I have no choice because hopefully I will grow through this. You'd think I would be ore mature than this spiritually by now.
Thanks for sharing your life with us and I am sorry for the long post.
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