change – Page 2

Decisions and Choices

Happy New Year! I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year’s season.

I’ve been thinking a lot about making decisions. I’m not talking about resolutions. Those mostly get broken before we get out of bed on January 2.

I’m looking at choices instead of resolutions. A resolution is what you intend to do. A choice is what you actually do.

Life is made up of hundreds of choices every day. Many of these choices are simply instinctive. Those are the ones we make without even realizing we made a choice. We get in a pattern but may never recognize it is a rut. Ruts resist change. So getting out of a rut takes deciding to change and then opting for different choices.

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Re-Entry- Changes You Will Face

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This month I rediscovered a book on my shelf, Re-Entry by Peter Jordan. Ten years ago I wrote an article on Re-Entry dealing with the stages in the process of re-entry to your home culture. This article has more to do with the changes that have occurred during overseas service and how that effects returning home.

Peter Jordan writes, “Things have not been stagnant during your time away. It is imperative before you leave the mission field to take time to properly assess how much you have changed, and how much things have changed back home.

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Migrants

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Migrant. Do you consider yourself a migrant? In the narrow UN definition, most of us would not qualify since we are not employed by our adopted country. But in the broader sense of living either temporarily or permanently in a country where we were not born, and having acquired some significant social ties to this county, most of us would qualify. Like the Bible says, we are strangers and aliens in the land of promise.

There are many helpful suggestions for migrants that we may not have taken personally. Whether we are long-time migrants in the country we serve or have just arrived, some common migrant thoughts can trip us up. Here are a few for you to consider:

Comparisons between our native country and our adopted country
Comparisons can be a slippery slope to the blues. Our comparisons may make our native country, with all its perks, seem all good. Then the reverse is true of our adopted country. In this skewed condition, our host country is all bad.

We can start down this slide when the day is exceptionally hot and humid, or when we cannot find our favorite comfort food. Say you live in a place where you cannot get good chocolate, and the stash you brought is depleted. And, its been raining for four days straight. If we don’t head it off quickly, we could be in the dungeon of despair by lunchtime. [Read more…]

An Issue of Trust

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It is December again. We all have Christmas in the back of our minds even if we are not actively thinking about it. The message of the angels to the shepherds was, “Peace on earth and goodwill to men.” Are you experiencing God’s peace? Are you at rest in God and the work He has given you to do? Are you secure in His provision in this economic atmosphere?

Judith Havens shares her lesson on trust with us. In whatever ways your world is turned on its head this Christmas season, let your stability come from your deep abiding trust of the God who gives us peace.

Have you ever ridden on a roller coaster? You know, that up and down motion. One moment you are excited with anticipation of what is to come…the thrill of a life time. The next moment you are being flung through the air and wondering if you will survive. That is usually when I think, “I will never get on this thing again!” [Read more…]