I’m back in Korea now after 5 weeks of being at home, which felt like 5 minutes and at the same time 5 months. It was a long time in which a lot happened but it was such a crazy whirlwind that I find myself back here just not sure how to process it all. And sure enough within 24 hours of me being back on the other side of the world I am standing in front of students expected to deliver my thoughts as frazzled as they are.
However, in the last three days I’ve been able to spend more time with the Lord then I did at all in the last 5 weeks. Although the first day back here I was an emotional wreck, I find myself so happy and at peace to be back here. This is where my Maker and I really connect. This is where I have so much time spent just me and God. And as much as I loved seeing people quite literally all the time in the U.S. I really missed this sweet alone time I have with the Lord and his creation everyday.
These days I’ve been reading the Samuel’s and delving more and more into how God used David to establish his covenant with him. It didn’t matter whether David was a shepherd boy, or how just with a sling and stone; he was still the anointed one and he still conquered Goliath. later he screws up real bad with Uriah and Bathsheba creating a catalyst of sin that affected his family for generations….but God still kept his covenant with him by allowing his Messiah to descend from the Davidic ancestry. The whole story of David has become such a beautiful picture for me about God’s sovereignty over our weaknesses and faults. I feel so inadequate being here, and so small with too many flaws to count, yet somehow in some glorious way I see God working and using me in the ways I wouldn’t think were useful. And I see him crushing all my prideful efforts at success.
At the same time, I’ve been reading 2 Corinthians, which in my opinion contains some of the most powerful chapters in all of scripture in regards to our role as communicators of the new covenant. The theology is deep yet simple: God’s glory is enhanced through weakness…jars of clay. It is the same with us as it was with David; as it is with all who are joined in the new covenant established by the blood of Jesus. It has nothing to do with our inadequacies and everything to do with our identity as people made in God’s image, renewed in His covenant.
In case you didn’t know, I resigned my contract in Korea for another year. While I will indeed still return home just in time for Christmas, I will come back again to teach the Bible to middle schoolers and also will add high school to the job next year. As I read these passages in 2 Corinthians one sticks out more and more to me as I continue to pursue Kingdom work in Asia:
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.” -2 Cor. 2:14, 3:4-6
We are His fragrance everywhere we go. As covenant children it is our duty to spread that fragrance no matter where we are with the confidence not in what we do or how we do it, but in who we are. (I know I’ve said it a million times in previous blogs, but I’ll say it again. Because this is theology that seeps into everything.)
I feel like I should made a clarification.
Some after reading my last blog were left with a sad feeling and wondered if I was ok. Let me clarify. I was going through a really hard week at that time, but it was also really really good. It seemed that the Lord was not going to let me off the hook easy and needed to break down some of the walls I’ve kept from Him by showing me that he doesn’t want a part of me…he wants all of me. And that terrified me. But after submitting that to Him and then going home, he’s already proven faithful in so many ways. I feel so blessed to have the community I have at home, and then feel so thankful to be here with my beautiful Korean community. It is truly an amazing experience to share in the body of Christ cross-culturally. There is nothing like it.
Thanks all who read and keep up with me. Its for you I keep writing. Keep me in your prayers and you’ll be in mine as well.
L
