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| (cannot take credit for this lovely pic....found on Flickr taken in Scotland) |
We felt the winds of change before we left Osaka. You know that feeling? The tingling anticipation that things will be different? The past 7 years, albeit amazing, have been, for me, more survival than seeking out Jesus' eyes and heart for the nation I am in or the people crossing my path. New babies, new countries, new cities, new friends, new grocery stores, new neighborhoods, etc......it's been easy for me to get comfortable that I am "doing the work of the Lord" because I am living in a foreign place whilst merely coping. I know there are seasons in every one's lives so I am not feeling condemnation just an awakening.
My ethos has been shifting lately....several things have been playing into this shift. A dear friend (yes you know who you are who has rattled my cage) handed me a pile of books just before we left her home one evening, books that have stirred some things in me deeply. New friends here in Tokyo that have come along side us with a desire to see the lost reached. A study of Ephesians with some friends that has me desiring to do more for the King who has (Eph. 1:7- 8) 'lavished on me redemption through his blood, forgiveness of my trespasses, and the riches of his grace' How can I not, with joy and awe want to imitate the God who has given so unrestrained grace to me so others can be set free as well?!?
"When we consider the promises of Christ, risking everything we are and everything we have for his sake is no longer a matter of sacrifice. It's just common sense." David Platt
Thus has begun the ruminating and the praying....I desire these stirrings to change me, not to be mere passing fancy. So we've been praying through a 'Radical Experiment' for our family, a mindset and lifestyle change. Seeking out the lost (which isn't difficult here in Japan) the marginalized, the hurting, the hungry, the poor and delving deeper into community fellowship with believers around us, methodically praying for the world and giving sacrificially (uncomfortably)....because this life is oh so short...thankfully this isn't IT though! If we truly believe we are citizens of another place we will live as such and not like we are from this temporary dwelling.
One book I've just finished is beautiful. "Adoption for Life". The author compares our lives as adopted children of the King of Kings to the authors experience adopting his two sons from Russia. Specifically to me, how in his children's fear of the unknown they reached back in longing to the 'known' but crummy orphanage where they sat in their own filth in cribs all day long. Here, on this earth, we effectively sit in our own filth everyday comfortable, loving it and even longing for more! Ignorant of the fact that this 'orphanage' we call home is disgusting, hateful, abusive - in a word fallen. The more we grow in the knowledge of the Lord the less we should look to this world and all it's 'delights' and the more we should look to our heavenly home.
So you should be seeing more diversity in our pictures as our skills in the art of Gospel living are honed....more hurting, lost and marginalized at our table and more foreigner's smiling faces by our sides (being foreigners ourselves makes us magnets for others). You may not recognize most as such, as orphans have a way of glossing over their true state. Just because someone looks on the outset as if all is well it doesn't mean it is.....
Our home has already become a place of refuge, where cups of coffee and meals are shared in sweet fellowship, where sacrifices are being made in order to reach out to the poor and needy, where daily little fingers point to countries on our map and learn about specific prayer needs for the people of that land, where little people see and hear Jesus every day.....
This is what we are about.....
"meaning of life - our task is to create foretastes of the Kingdom of God on this planet - living glimpses of what life is meant to be...." Robert McAfee Brown
This may change the face of who we are as a family.....but if it looks more like Jesus as a result then my heart will rejoice as his name will be glorified.
