These are some children from an orphanage in India where I will be visiting in just a couple of weeks. They had been learning to bake a cake in this picture and doing the very thing I love to do when I bake a cake: lick the bowl and enjoy the batter! Yum! Maybe we will relate to each other after all. It seems the enjoyment of cake batter is universal and cross-cultural, so perhaps my personal story about how much God loves to lavish His extravagant forgiveness and mercy to me will travel across the ocean and reach the hearts of these precious Indian people.
As I reflect today on my upcoming trip, I find my heart is anxious about several things. Finances...but then what's new about that? Cross-cultural relevance...but then whose responsibility is that really? Will I like the food or should I take my own? Will my senses be so much on overload that I want to scream and rush back to the airport to go home? Isn't it funny how quick we are to fret and fear? I don't want to give in to those common, natural emotions though. I don't want that to be the main focus of my attention. I want to say with Abraham in Genesis 22, "Here am I." And I want to trust in the provision of my Provider. I want to be excited about the awesome opportunity and experience this trip promises to be. I want to give in to the whole thing; to embrace whatever is in store for me and the others with spontaneity and adventure. I just want to move among a different people for a couple of weeks and see where God is at work there. I know He is. His love and delight isn't just American. His mercy and faithfulness is cross-cultural and universal. Open my eyes, broaden my view and perspective beyond my own little bubble of a world. There is a great big world out there....and there is more going on it than my concern of whether my weight maintenance is on schedule or not. (More on that in the next post, as I know that several of my blog followers are curious about where things stand in regard to my weight loss journey.)
As I reflect today on my upcoming trip, I find my heart is anxious about several things. Finances...but then what's new about that? Cross-cultural relevance...but then whose responsibility is that really? Will I like the food or should I take my own? Will my senses be so much on overload that I want to scream and rush back to the airport to go home? Isn't it funny how quick we are to fret and fear? I don't want to give in to those common, natural emotions though. I don't want that to be the main focus of my attention. I want to say with Abraham in Genesis 22, "Here am I." And I want to trust in the provision of my Provider. I want to be excited about the awesome opportunity and experience this trip promises to be. I want to give in to the whole thing; to embrace whatever is in store for me and the others with spontaneity and adventure. I just want to move among a different people for a couple of weeks and see where God is at work there. I know He is. His love and delight isn't just American. His mercy and faithfulness is cross-cultural and universal. Open my eyes, broaden my view and perspective beyond my own little bubble of a world. There is a great big world out there....and there is more going on it than my concern of whether my weight maintenance is on schedule or not. (More on that in the next post, as I know that several of my blog followers are curious about where things stand in regard to my weight loss journey.)