I’m Not A Stranger…
As I type I am sitting in Vancouver International Airport waiting for my 15 hour flight to Sydney Australia. I believe this trip will be the capstone to a season of personal discovery for me. At the end of Summer, after the mass of long hours spent alone in the fields had dispensed its weight fully in my mind I asked my Lord to grant me a season of challenge and clarity, where I could be refined and placed singularly on the food of his grace and glory. This opportunity to spend three months in Australia is the third in a line of such experiences.
Since I haven’t posted anything in awhile, my thoughts are scattered, how about some bullet points…
+ Psalm 37:3&4 says: Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” and Ephesians 3:20&21 says: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” What I have gleaned from these passages and my experience is that if we are those who seek him, who ask for good gifts, he is faithful to supply them beyond our frail and narrow imaginations.
+ When one travels, one learns a ton about himself. The mystery of identity is fascinating to me. We are a race of individuals who’s identity has (as far as I can tell) never been derived from our individuality. We are a collective, the people we come in contact with -our culture with it’s social institutions, laws, morals largely decides what we will become. Traveling is a challenge for it tears us away from what has (primarily) made us… us. I was warned by a mentor of mine not to lose myself in homesickness but instead to BE in Australia, and milk it for all it can give me.
+ Yet in the search for what makes up a man’s identity two quotes come to mind: “One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego. The self is more distant than any star.” -GK Chesterton and “I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I know as well” -Henry David Thoreau. How they interact with each other and what truth they reveal together is a mystery to me.
+ All I know is I am being molded, shaped, formed. The best quote to place here, to sum up what I feel is happening comes from Daniel Lanois’s The Maker: My body is bent and broken by long and dangerous sleep, but I can can the fields of Abraham and turn my head away, I’m not a stranger in the eyes of the Maker.
December 2, 2009 at 7:22 am
- Really good post. I’ve been mulling over some of these ideas in context of my college experience and an upcoming semester in England.
December 3, 2009 at 2:24 am
Thanks Dave for getting back to your blog. I am looking forward to the months ahead to see how God molds you into more- even more- of His own. Praying for you. Love you so Bro.
Carol
December 3, 2009 at 5:29 am
Dave:
I am so glad you are blogging about this adventure. It may become one of those defining experiences of your life. You are such a good writer. I’m anxious to read some of your previous posts.
No, you are NOT a stranger in the eyes of the Maker. Indeed, because of your faith in Jesus you are His friend! In fact, you are His son. Oh, the unfathomable delight of knowing who you are in Christ.
May you know much JOY in this JOURNEY!
PJ
December 3, 2009 at 6:50 pm
TO build on one of your bullet points, each second we exist changes us. Consequently, each experience we have makes little changes in us.