Radically Altered

The sermon at my church on Sunday was about rediscovering your freedom in Christ, even in the midst of the 'static' (distractions). I particularly liked the analogy used about experiencing the fullness of God rather than just pieces. The comparison used was to a cake. You wouldn't eat just flour, or just eggs, or just vanilla extract. You want to eat it when it's all together and baked, and makes a delicious cake. Like God, you shouldn't be only seeking Him as a Provider, or only a friend, or only a comforter. You should seek each side of Him, so you can grasp the fullness that He is.

I was thinking about these things in relation to my own life. I look back on my year overseas, and I can see that God used that time to radically change me. God used that circumstance to grow me in new ways. It was from a mixture of so many new experiences and friends, over a period of a year, that God taught me how to rely on Him solely and how to live my life as a sacrifice to Him, and glorify Him all at the same time. Before I went there, I loved God, sought Him, and would definitely not say I was just 'going through the motions.' But when I look back on that time compared to now, I feel like I was asleep. And now that I am awake, I want to keep this mindset, this desire to have the whole cake and not just pieces.

It's amazing what it does to you when God totally obliterates anything even resembling your comfort zone. That's what Hong Kong was for me. Over time, I guess I developed a new comfort zone, but it was nothing like the one I knew before. Language barriers, a culture to wholly different from my own, an enormous melting pot of so many cultures and races, strange foods, not a single friend I had any history with, or anything resembling home to cling to ... it was a hard and lengthy adjustment, but it formed my life there, radically altered me, and sometimes I miss it so much.