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| First day of sixth grade for John, first day of tenth grade for Han...where have the years gone?? |
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| The football shrine--Oklahoma Sooners on one side, Florida Gators on the other, and College Gameday on the television. |
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| My man loves his Sooners...ready for a nice day celebrating the opening of our favorite season! |
Well, we made it through the first week of school. There were some bad moments, but there were also some great moments, and we're steadily focusing on them. The bad stuff? Not a whole lot we can do about right now, except pray, and it makes the good stuff seem really precious. That's not wholly terrible, I think, to keep the good in perspective, when it's easy to shuffle it off to the side and forget about it. And so, we're focusing on the good, on the fun of school starting, college football season starting, cooler temperatures, etc. We love fall, and fall in Austria is incredible, so we're focusing on that, too...the anticipation of some day trips around the country, of football games, getting to know our new church, cooking chili...you get the idea. Focusing on the positive.
I've been thinking about focus a good bit, lately, mostly because I'm having a problem with my left eye. Actually, I'm not sure if I'm having a problem with my left eye or with my contact. I changed contacts (mine are the kind you keep for a month at a time), and I suddenly can't focus my left eye without some actual thought about focusing it. And sometimes, I can't get it to focus at all, which leaves me a little bit discombobulated. (Plus, I've started doing that middle-aged thing where you hold something far away until it comes into focus. When did that happen?!?!?!) So, obviously, focus has become a big thing in my life recently. Or at least a thing I'm thinking about it more than I normally do.
Last night, we had friends over, and we got to telling stories about stupid junk we've done overseas. Mistakes in language, in culture, getting fed up and yelling in English (yep...that one was me...in Ashan for those of you who know that store well), and just generally not being the spiritual giants we'd like to think God sends overseas. We were laughing. Laughing hard. Because if you've lived overseas for any amount of time--even a couple of weeks--you've done something stupid and felt ridiculous about it. You've been humbled by which greeting is appropriate in which setting. You've accidentally used the informal when you were supposed to use the formal and really offended someone. You've sat in church and had to glance around to see which book of the Bible the pastor is reading out of, because you don't know them in the current language. (By the way--sometimes it's not a translation. It's just that they call it a totally different name. Can you say Second Moses?) You've misunderstood something said to you. Or you've just had it with trying to find your kids' school supplies in thirty different stores. You either have to laugh, or you have to cry. And having tried both, I can say from experience that laughter is far preferable.
But here's the good news: it gets better. I don't think about the school supply shopping, because I'm used to it. The weird stuff that doesn't even remotely resemble the way we do it in America (because T.I.N.A.--this is not America) doesn't seem weird to me, anymore. The way I pay my bills, the way I get to the grocery or to the kids' school...none of it fazes me, anymore, because it is what life is here. And generally speaking, I like life overseas, so that stuff doesn't bother me...ANYMORE. But my friends in Moscow will laugh when they read this, because those exact things used to drive me NUTS when I first moved overseas. CRAZY. But they just are part of life, now. So it gets better.
And that's an encouraging word, isn't it, about a lot of things. Not just culture shock or learning a language, but just life in general. Things change. They get better. Or they don't, but you learn to live with them, or you grow in your own life to the point that they aren't as big a deal, anymore. And the only way I know for that kind of growth to happen is to focus on Christ. On His glory. On His path, His will, on His all-encompassing love for us. When I am focused on Him...the things of earth do, indeed, grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
So what does that have to do with the great cloud of witnesses? If you have experienced a real life and relationship with fellow believers--no matter the language--then you know what an encouragement that is to focus on Christ, on the positive things in life, on the immense blessings He rains down on those who love Him and believe. And those relationships are very often the way God encourages me to focus on Him. Sometimes, that's an encouragement to pray with one another, to worship together, to praise Him together...and sometimes, it's just sitting in our flat with friends, laughing and laughing at how stupid we sometimes are in His name. I have to believe that in both those scenarios--the serious and the silly--God is pleased when we pay attention not only to the great cloud who have gone before us, but also to the witnesses we do life with every day. I have to believe He smiles when we choose to love one another and encourage one another out of our great, common love for Him. We are commanded to love the brethren...I have to believe that making chili, watching football and laughing together definitely falls under that category.
Wherever you are in the world, I pray that you are focused on Christ, on His goodness, on His cross, on His love...and that you have leftover chili in the crockpot today, too. Blessings to you and yours!
His,
Kellye
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