Light and Momentary Troubles.

Note: I tried a new blog template for a few days there, and there were things I liked about it, but it also bugged me.  So I'm back to the original template and it will stay that way unless there is an outcry from the readership to go to the new template.  

Wow.  5 1/2 days of school left in the semester. I should say, only 5 days because the last half day is a class party and grade level party (gag).  I'm all for Christmas, but I hate class parties- it's one of the main reasons I don't teach elementary school.  All that hyped-up craziness.  Shoot me now. 

In a mere 12 days, I will be home for Christmas, and I can't wait.  It's good to be home for Christmas anytime, but this year has a few extra special things.  For one, I have just learned that both of my best friends from high school will be with their families in Michigan for Christmas this year- the same time all three of us will be together since one of their weddings in May 2007.  In addition, in the 6 months since I left two of my other friends' little boys have turned 2 and started to talk. They are both characters and I CANNOT WAIT to hear what they have to say :)  But perhaps the best reason of all, besides the usual greatness of seeing family and friends, is that I could really use a break. 

I love Thailand.  I like living here.  I like my job.  I am glad that I came here and I can see God's fingerprints all over it.  But, it's also been really hard.  In many ways, harder than Argentina- for a million reasons.  Moving overseas is never easy, but rarely have I been so glad to put any 6 months of my life behind me.  There have been many great moments and fun times and times of growth, don't get me wrong, but it's also been a semester of challenge and turmoil and humility (nothing humbles you faster than not knowing anything) and crisis (aye the floods!) and sometimes even hurt. 

Perhaps the strangest thing of all is that if I had to do it over again, I would do it over again.  Not because I like pain, but because I believe that no matter how much it sucks some days, it is achieving purposes on many levels.  I do believe that some day I'll get the hang of all the procedures our school has and won't feel like an idiot constantly when I have to ask for help.  I believe that the work to learn Thai will pay off, that I will speak it and that it will be useful to me in life and in ministry (it was already helpful on Saturday!).  I believe that friendship, which is sometimes slow and arduous and painful to build, will one blossom.  I believe that one by one I will conquer the cultural systems around me (like the bank, where I need to go again tomorrow because I lost my ATM card again).  And, I believe that all of these light and momentary troubles are indeed achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  I am not here for myself or for my happiness, but to serve the king of King and lord of Lords, and if that means putting up with some of this stuff for awhile, so be it. 

So yeah, even if I limp to the end of the semester dragging, even if I'm crabby with my students, even if the journey isn't always pleasant or pretty, I know that it's part of transition.  Transition from the US to Thailand, from knowing and being known to being new and from temporary to eternal.