Holding the Long View In Mind
Whatever your promised land is, like the Israelites, we are all on a journey. Where we are now, is not where we will always be.
Amy Young is readjusting to messy middle of life in the US after more than twenty years in China and the recent death of her dad. When she first moved to China she knew three Chinese words: hello, thank you and watermelon. Often the only words really needed in life. She is known to jump in without all the facts and blogs regularly at messymiddle.com and tweets as @amyinbj and is the most unbeautiful pinner Pinterest has ever seen (but she's having fun!).
Whatever your promised land is, like the Israelites, we are all on a journey. Where we are now, is not where we will always be.
While mentoring is often associated with live, human input, it’s not the only form of mentoring.
We believe that if we rescue one girl from human trafficking, we will be opening up a spot for other girls to be victimized. So, slowly, we are developing relationships with brothel owners and offering employment if they shut down their business as usual and reopen their business as a handicraft co-op.
Even if you never move further than up or down your block, we all live lives of transitions. I love to hear the back-stories on books or movies. This week Looming Transitions: starting and finishing well in cross-cultural service, a labor of love by me, was published.
If you look at my other words, they all have elements for something to do, but this year, this word, it about who I am.
We spend time with God. We become familiar with his voice. We fill our heads, hearts, and souls with the truth of the gospel.
“I’m going to be talking to myself, you’re going to be talking to yourself. The question is, what are we self-talking about?”
Where The Red Fern Grows gave us a common vocabulary and story to talk about important things in life. It gave us a shared experience. It bonded us.
What if we resisted the urge to pigeonhole people and we didn’t use our go-to characters, our familiar illustrations, our well-worn paths? What if we did look at David’s parenting skills, not with an eye for what-not-to-do, but for what to do. Or Ruth and how she used her sexuality in such a way it ended up in the Bible, sanctioned by God. It’s easy to put certain people on pedestals and knock others off. Caricatures are cheap; really understanding someone’s character takes effort.