Tag: worship

Categories
Crossing Cultures Devotional Memoir

Looking for beauty

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.

Continue reading “Looking for beauty”
Categories
Devotional

Surrender and worship

Picking through pieces of my journal, I come across a scattering of words. Spiraling down the page in quick succession. Heart cry detailing the inner work of surrender. Submission.  Worship.

Two hands, opened with palms up.
Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash
Continue reading “Surrender and worship”
Categories
Crossing Cultures Memoir

International fellowship

Our third move in Karachi was to a grand house called Swiss Villa. The name itself shouted wishful thinking in that desert megacity on the Arabian Sea.

It only took a walk out the gate or a glance off the second-floor balcony to see the irony. Clouds of dust and sand were stirred up by vehicles ambling down the road. Goats and cows feasted on the garbage pile across the street.  

And frequent power outages in the extreme heat of summer meant temperatures over 100 degrees inside our living room.

Front porch of Swiss Villa. Karachi

But the house itself was well-built and had a lovely front yard with grass and bougainvillea. In the desert, this was no small thing. Watching our children run and play in the grass was not something I took for granted. 

Continue reading “International fellowship”