Wednesday, September 19, 2007

On The Road

Traveling!? How exciting! Sometimes it is amazing to me how much traveling I have actually done over the years. It seems just like yesterday when I got my 1st passport. I’m now on #4. I remember seeing machine gun armed military in the Frankfurt airport and Communist boarder crossing requirements. Now it is just an exercise in undressing and redressing and unpacking and repacking.

All that said this trip has start with a new since of peace. There is a peace that comes from allowing God to be God in and through the circumstances of the adventure of the trip. My flight and connections from Poland to San Francisco were easy and smooth. All on time? No! But it was quite a pleasant experience.

Re-entry into the USA is always an experience of culture shock. Everything from road signs to food, cars, parking places, church experiences and shrinking egg McMuffins.

God is so amazing! He has this incredible ability to meet me where I am with exactly what I need when I really need it and it is never in the way I anticipated it would be. I have to admit that I’m just beginning to rediscover the joy of letting God be God in my life. I don’t know why exactly, but I realize that over the last few years I have become a bit of a control freak. Maybe it comes from my behaviorist teaching background or just feeling like the ucky things in life were running over me and those I care about and stealing the very essence of life. The last few trips to the States were no exception. This feeling of needing things to be a certain way led to a lot of disappointment, stress and just plain bad behavior on my part.

I realize more than ever that my disappointed expectations of others are really excuses for my frustrations with myself. My inability to clear express my needs, wants, and desires. Those times when my pride prevents me from asking for help and seeking advise.

Jesus is so faithful when I just let Him be God. I had such a wonderful time with my friends at Mountain View Chinese Christian Church. Jesus arranged for my old friend T.G. to be in town from Tennessee just for me (or at least I felt like it).
I was able to meet new friends at the Coastlands and get reacquainted with old friends. I spent some time with my “girls” as they begin a new adventure with Jesus.

You what!? It really is so much more fun to see God in the unexpected than to try (unsuccessfully) to control life.

Today I start part 2 of my 6 weeks in the USA. LA here I come

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