by Whitey | Oct 6, 2010 | Thoughts
A Japanese woman once explained why a Japanese would be reluctant to… accommodate a friendship with an expatriate. “If he asks you how long you intend to live in Japan and you say, ‘Ten years,’ you think that’s a really long time. But to him, a new friendship is not worth taking on if he knows you will move away in a decade.
(Michael Zielenziger, Shutting Out the Sun)
This quote really stood out to me recently. If true (and I think is is for many Japanese) it is one major reason long-term missionaries are needed in Japan. And it is a big part of why I am planning to stay here long-term, perhaps the rest of my life. Of course, the fact that I love it here and feel at home definitely helps, too.
by Whitey | Jun 14, 2010 | Thoughts
I’m beginning to realize that time is running short. If I’m to be in Japan by early August, there are a lot of things I need to get done between now and then. And since I’ll be away for most of July, I need to get a lot of that stuff done this week and next. Should make for a crazy couple of weeks.
On the other hand, I’ve made good progress on some stuff. On the weekend I got rid of about half my stuff that was just taking up space here in my parents’ basement. We had a yard sale, and what didn’t sell got given to a second-hand shop. It’s amazing how much stuff I had that seemed so valuable at one time but seems so useless now. Living half a world away from your stuff for a couple years certainly gives you a new perspective.
So anyway, I am getting stuff done. But then there are the things that need to get done but are completely out of my control. There’s that last 8-10% of my support I’m waiting on; I can get the word out but I can’t determine how people will respond. There’s a visa to apply for; but first there’s an important piece of paperwork to be processed by someone on my behalf in Japan. And when I finally do get that, I can apply for the visa, but again I’ll have to wait…
Having faith sometimes means taking action. Other times it means waiting. For me, right now, it means both.
(Posted Monday June 14 AM)
by Whitey | Sep 8, 2009 | Thoughts
This is the second article I’m re-posted from my former-former blog. This one’s dated December 14, 2006, and in it I talk about one of my favourite passages of Scripture and what it meant to me at the time. It still means a lot to me now, and is a good truth to reflect on as I think about what God might have for me next year and in the years to come.
Last time I talked about the Problem With Being Creative. Now let me talk about my other problem: I’m a dreamer. The following is one of my favourite passages in all of Scripture. It encourages me to dream big dreams…
(3) Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
(4) Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
(5) Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
(6) He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
– Psalm 37:3-6 (NIV)
I believe God wants to make our dreams come true. The problem is that it can be hard to see that sometimes. We get used to being disappointed. So we stop trying. We stop dreaming.
But I think God wants to give us our dreams. And Psalm 37 tells us how… “Delight” in the Lord (v.4). Worship Him, enjoy Him, make Him Your center of attention and reason for being. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” — He’ll make Your dreams come true! This is true because as we delight in Him, we change. As we change, our priorities, our desires, our dreams change. We trust Him with our dreams. We commit those dreams to Him. We begin to pray, like Jesus did, “Your will, Father, not mine be done.”
I think our dreams can and will come true as we truly trust God, delight in Him and commit our dreams into His hands.
Before I started to sense God calling me into ministry, I had other dreams; stuff like being a rock star or a cartoonist. Obviously being a rock star was probably a pipe dream, but being a cartoonist seemed a little more likely at the time. So I was working as a graphic designer, but dreaming of “bigger things”…
When I went off to Bible college, I basically gave my own dreams to God and said “Your will, not mine, Lord.” Little did I know what that would mean. Sheesh, I never wanted to be a missionary, even after Bible college. But that’s another story. This story is about how I gave those dreams of creative occupations, and God gave them back to me; only, when I got them back, they suddenly looked a whole lot different.
I never got to be a rock star, but during and after Bible college I got to develop my musical side a lot, and had many good experiences playing and singing. Only now I was a worship leader instead of a grunge puppy rock star wannabe. I even recorded a CD. And I haven’t gotten to be a full-time, paid cartoonist, but I have been doing a webcomic for almost three years now, and finally have published my first book collecting those strips. And have I ever mentioned that I created SkitZo MaN about 13 years ago? Sometimes dreams just take longer than we’d like… That doesn’t mean we should give up on them!
And, as I briefly mentioned in my previous post, I’ve got this ongoing, evolving dream of bringing my creative side and my ministry side together into one “big thing”. What form this beast will take remains to be seen, but I’m continuing to work towards that every time I exercise my creative muscles (including writing this blog). And, as I’m preparing for ministry in Japan, I’m beginning to see how being a big comic geek (like me) could actually be an advantage!
All that to say keep dreaming…
As I said, these are good things for me to reflect on as I near another time of transition. In a future post I hope to share some more recent thoughts on knowing and doing God’s will, along with some quotes I’ve found encouraging along the way. Hopefully you can find some encouragement here as well.
by Whitey | Sep 5, 2009 | Thoughts
I did an “archive dive” of my old blog (not this one, but this one) tonight, looking for something I wrote way back when. I found two things I wrote back in 2006 (when I was still in Canada preparing to come to Japan as a missionary). I thought these were worth re-visiting because they seem to have fresh relevance as I end my first 2-year term with GP and dream about the future.
Here’s the first one, dated December 9, 2006, and titled The Problem With Being Creative:
Some of you may be wondering how a guy like me — working in retail as well as being busy doing the missionary support raising thing — has time for stuff like blogging, web design and particularly SkitZo MaN. The answer is a three-parter:
One, I think too many people kill themselves doing “good things” and then end up being no good to anyone. I don’t want to be one of those guys. And there are a lot of those guys in ministry, since it’s so easy to justify doing too much “for the Lord”. So, I may be busy, but I refuse to burn myself by not taking time out to just “be”. This includes time with God, resting, friends and of course being creative.
Secondly, I have this dream that my ministry side and my creative side will someday come together into one “big picture”. In the meantime I want to continue developing my talents. More on this in another post…
Thirdly, I can’t not be creative. If it wasn’t SkitZo MaN, it would be something else. Unless you’re some kind of artistic type yourself you’ll probably not understand. Creative people create. We must. It’s who we are.
Take tonight for example: I was trying to read but I couldn’t. My mind kept wandering. I’ve been dreaming up some new ideas and sometimes they come to the surface at the most inconvenient times. I’ve got more ideas than I know what to do with.
And that’s the problem with being creative: In a way, it’s something that can’t be controlled. And yet, you know, sometimes we actually don’t have time.
But we have to make time. God’s given all of us (not just us “artsy fartsy” types, but all of us) talents and gift. We honour Him when we use them and enjoy them and bless other people with them. We dishonour Him — and ourselves — when we waste them.
Next time: The Problem With Being a Dreamer
I still agree with most of what I said, if not how I said it. And I’m still dreaming about that “big picture” I mentioned. Not only that, but I feel as if I’m getting closer to actually getting there. And that’s encouraging.
by Whitey | Jun 18, 2009 | Thoughts
“They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town.”
– Acts 14:19-20 (NLT)
These words really stuck out to me the other day as I was reading the passage. Paul is out sharing the Gospel, runs into opposition, has the stuffing beat out of him, and is dragged out of town and left for dead. And then what? He gets up and goes right back into town. Wow. He doesn’t run away. He doesn’t back down. He goes right back into the city he was just thrown out of. Back into the fray.
I’ve never been beat up for my faith. I’ve never faced anything remotely close to that kind of persecution, and I assume most of the people reading this haven’t either. But I have failed. I’ve been hurt. I’ve been disappointed by others. I’ve disappointed myself. I’ve sinned when I knew better and felt rotten for it.
But when I read this passage, I remembered that whatever failure I’ve had, whatever hurt I’ve experienced, it doesn’t have to have the last word. With God’s help, I can get up and go back. And so can you.
by Whitey | Jun 17, 2009 | Thoughts
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
– John 1:1 (NIV)
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what the Bible means when it refers to Jesus as “the Word”. I’m sure there’s more depth to it than I’ve yet discovered, but here’s what I’ve got so far:
Jesus is God’s way of revealing Himself to us. He could have sent another prophet to tell us about Him. He could have shown us some sort of miraculous sign in the sky. Instead, He came to us in a form we could understand: He became one of us. Jesus is God’s most clear revelation of His own character. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.
This has a huge affect on how we see God. And it should have a huge affect on how we view Scripture too. Jesus is the center-piece of the Bible. Everything in the Old Testament leads up to Him; everything in the New Testament is directly influenced by His life and teachings.
Beyond that, Jesus Himself teaches us how we should interpret Scripture: Himself (a pretty bold assertion to make, but if He’s really God, then He can do that). He tells us He’s the fulfillment of the Law. He replaces the sacrificial system with His own sacrifice. And He radically re-interprets a lot of Old Testament teachings by showing us God’s heart behind them (the letter versus the spirit of the Law).
I think a lot of the Church’s history of legalism, abuses of power and misuse of the Bible to justify political and personal agendas is rooted in a failure to interpret the written Word through the life and teachings of the Living Word, Jesus.
Christians often talk about “getting back to the Bible”. I say we get back to Jesus.
