***Ok, disclaimer. I'm trying to work with all y'all detail people, but that's hard for me. I honestly aimed to make this post short...but it's my blog, and I couldn't stop when I started. I really will post pictures and details later in short, bite-sized pieces, but for now, bear with me. Thank you.***
Tonight, I needed/couldn't do without/would have given anything for apple pie... a la mode of course. My eyes lit up when I saw the dessert bar. Ah, America. Then I threw the frisbee and football with the guys. Yep, sports- add that to the comfort list.
I suppose this post is more about introspection and evaluation than apple pie (sorry if I made you hungry in the process). Of course we are being trained (excellently, I might add) in the finer points of living in Asia, teaching and organizational protocol, but really so much of it is settling and establishing the heart. I suppose that's why I've been assessing where mine's at.
Not that apple pie is bad, or sports for that matter. But why do I enjoy these things? Why do comforts like these bring such a feeling (although fleeting) of satisfaction? Ok, I'll get to the point- completion. It seems that satisfaction is intimately tied with wholeness. Certainly there are different scales here (apple pie vs. relationships, etc), but surely you've heard someone say: "I'll be ok as long as I have this/that/him/her/there." Completion.
So this is only my second post, but maybe you know where I'm going and can maybe understand my thought process here (if not stay with me!). When the this/that/him/her/here is stripped away, what is left? What is at the bottom? What is it that I cling to for completion? It seems as if I was made with this hole, these longings, these desires, so what do I grasp at for that fulfillment? Unfortunately, it's taken me moving to China and being on the verge of those things being stripped away that I honestly, completely ask myself that question. Let us all ask it, no matter where we are.
"And you are complete in Him." Col 2:10. Complete. Satisfied. In Him. Of course- He is the bottom of it all. I'll keep eating my apple pie and following sports, but when you strip that away and give me mounds of rice and make me watch soccer (ha), I want to be saying, "Fine! Have it all! I've got Him! I love Him and He is enough!"
And here I've rambled, but the Father has been writing on this theme for all of history. It's why Adam and Eve fell, it's why Israel so often turned, it's why the rich young ruler walked away, and finally, it's why the Son died and rose. Man longed for completion in other things, and then the Father said, "Here. Here is what you've been looking for." Let us stop looking elsewhere.
You know, I think I can do without that apple pie.
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