Susan Lafferty“What’s it like entering a new country and culture. How do you prepare?” Her questions take me back to the early days. Of crossing borders and dwelling in the land.
My reading the next day is Joshua 1-4. God’s people are leaving their wilderness wanderings and entering the promised land.
The context and purpose differs, but in the preparation of God’s people, I find strategic practices. For entering the land.
Whether that land is across the river, across the street or across the ocean.
We’ve lived in places of extraordinary beauty. The spectacular so commonplace in my daily view that I forget what I have. Right in front of me.
Then there are the other places. The hard, trashed out, desert places. No electricity on the hottest days. Water shortages. Just plain, hard living.
I forget in those settings too. Forget to look for the beauty.
In my last post, I shared part of that journey to find it even in the unlikely places.
And through a variety of countries and cultures along the way, I’ve learned a few simple things.
“Lord, you are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance” (Psalm 16:5-6).
Beauty? Our first year of living in Karachi, my eyes saw the sand and dirt. Trash along the roads. The walls and buildings that matched the browns of a desert landscape.
Nothing seemed pleasant. Or beautiful.
I decided “pleasant places” must refer to the believer’s spiritual condition. Certainly not physical surroundings. Not this desert megacity, anyway.