First a picture snagged off of Val's camera of our beach day :) To be honest, we were perhaps kind of numb here :)
A cloudy afternoon at home alone on a Sunday is stirring the thinking glands in my brain, so here's some thoughts for you, for what they're worth!
Over the course of the semester so far I've received comments about what a great experience this must be for us. This past week I spoke with several people who thought the life of the traveller was the greatest life on earth. A lot of times people say that they wish they too could be in our shoes. This has been a bit heavy on my mind lately.
Let me tell you friends, wooden shoes are colorful and exotic, but when they are taken down from Grandmother's show cabinet, they aren't so comfortable to wear. Joy in life I believe comes from enjoying these things in their place, wearing the wooden shoes and delighting in them when we have the opportunity. Yet when we look at the wooden shoes from behind the cabinet glass we can only simply enjoy the colors with a smile, then walk toward the day's tasks with a smile on our face and joy in the works of service which God has blessed us with for the day.
Even the experience behind the glass doors, that of travel, is not without its slivers and blisters. After all, there are exams!! There are moments of hearing about Smithers snowmobiling trips on the weekend ;). There are Saturday evenings at home studying. There is at times the sense of not really knowing where I belong, having three homes at this point! But don't worry, these are good experiences overall, from which I have grown :)
With that being said, the experience of travel is wonderful. It allows one to meet people with a different way of thinking and background (just today I talked with a girl who grew up in the Congo who couldn't ever bike because of constant danger while outdoors)! It has also taught me more and more how to love. Meeting people of various colors, abilities, thoughts and habits has shown me the need (I still have a loong way to go!) to treat and think of everyone, not as less or more than myself, but as potential to love, give, and laugh with. Especially the Dutch church I am a part of is a stellar example of this. Also being able to see history in the very place it has happened is pretty cool. And seeing the vibrancy of different cities also definitely adds spice to life!
I think the secret of contentment has been slowly unravelling its tightly bound spine for me in the past year. Paul speaks in Philippians about how he has learned the secret of being content, in any and every circumstance. Whether life right now is hungry, abundant or needy, he speaks of finding satisfaction through Christ, "who gives me strength." This strength gives us what we need to follow the path of God's will, in trust and obedience. And this strength enables us to walk with God regardless of circumstances.
The beauty of life is that it includes moments of awe-inspiring beauty when looking into a newborn's eyes.It includes night walks alone when you feel you desperately need Grandma's hug. Life includes a guitar and a beer at the local pub, laughing with good friends. It includes gut-wrenching tears of expectations crushed. It includes the final agonizing reach, sweaty fingers grasping, exhausted, upward to the very peak of the mountain. And the triumph thrill of standing on the peak, with arms raised. But it also includes mounds of dishes on the counter, a child's shrill cry for attention, another day of textbooks, and three heaping baskets of laundry to fold.
And always, always God is right at hand. Whether we cannot seem to feel his presence or whether we are too busy enjoying ourselves to think of Him.
How then should we live? What is this secret of contentment? From my experience, the answer is to live in constant wonder at our dear Father, seeking to please Him, to find joy in walking in the shoes he has lovingly moulded for our feet, toward our goal to which we have been called.
I often am uncomfortable with these shoes, rubbing a little too hard and getting slivers. And sometimes when things go well the I AM gives little pricks that remind me who I am.
So friends, wherever God has put us, let's embrace life with a smile, desiring to develop our character yet always over that desiring to serve Him and eachother. Be spontaneous, climb those mountains, open your mind to feel the greatest wonder at the smallest leaf blade. As a friend would say, "milk the marrow out of life!" But over all this let's seek to be wise and most of all to please the one who has not only created us, but recreated us to be in his image!
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