The Beauty of Familiar

This week is what we're considering a relatively "slow" week, meaning we will be at home for a luxurious consecutive four days. There's just something about having a space in the world that is your own . . . no matter where it is or what it looks like, it's your own. Although we have a full week of class and things to be done, we're home. In our space . . . able to rest, recharge, and reflect on all that's been swirling within and around us.

I feel like for me, I can balance a hectic lifestyle if a few constants can be sustained. This morning, after a run and trip to the market (have I mentioned I L-O-V-E the market?) - I felt like I could conquer the world. Being able to pound some pavement and chat briefly with my friend "the bean lady" was sweet to my soul. Those moments of just doing regular, ordinary things . . . afford me the opportunity to treasure how blessed we are to be here. I love being in a place and season of my life where I can't help but recognize how the Lord is truly present,  almost as if He's unavoidable.  Isn't it funny how ultimately He is most present when we aren't? And how He pours out and sustains in ways we've previously missed once we relinquish our sense of self and control?

This week's trip to the high school also provided some reassuring familiarity. The sea of faces weren't so daunting, the task of teaching English to students who giggle shyly at just saying their name didn't seem quite so impossible.  While we undoubtedly have much, MUCH to learn in so many areas, it's nice to do know you can do somethings. I know that if nothing else, I can act out vocabulary words and get a laugh from 25 SE Asian high school students.  But it's also nice to know that there are plenty of things that we absolutely cannot do or accomplish. Each day I find myself trying to live in that tension - confident in what little I can do, but humbly accepting all that I cannot and leaning fully into He who provides.

One of our views at the school . . . not bad, huh?

Thankfully, in all of this, there is such a beautiful familiarity. Blanketed across the challenges and treasures of each day, is the familiarity of a God who knows me, and has seen me through countless peaks and valleys. I love knowing that at whatever end of the competency scale that day finds me . . . I am wholly and deeply loved. I am accepted with all of my faults, fears, and failures - and am able to celebrate all that I am not with a God who is.

These days I'm contemplating just how it is that God makes a place so foreign so familiar. And how it is that when He turns the nastiness of my heart inside out, I see Him in a whole new glorious light. There are so many things about myself, God, and this place that I wonder if I'll ever understand, but for now, for today - I'm content in knowing that regardless of how dark or sunny my days are, He knows me and walks close beside. That my friends, is a truth I know and relish in any culture or language.