happy new year?

as is with traditions, once the festivities have pasted I make new years resolutions the second day of the year. considering that i only have an hour left of the 2nd, i should make this snappy.

just got back from urbana tired, brain-clogged, enlightened, and congested. i had the worst plane ride experience of my life. after consultation with a few doctors, they came to the conclusion that the knife i felt jabbing down my ears during the plane descent was due to congestion of the ear/mouth/nose areas resulting in my ears' inability to release the pressure that was building up. my eyes watered up and my head felt like it was about to explode. after much prayer and about 45 minutes of suffering we landed. praise God.

so now partially deaf for a few days, i can take the time to process the goings on of urbana. many people that had gone to urbana before always said that urbana would be an experience that would change your life in dramatic ways. while for many the dramatic changes happened instananeously, many others may not see the dramatic change for many years to come. although i dont feel like my life has been dramatically changed, i can see how some of the things that i learned or the ideas that i felt God had bestowed in my mind will one day change my life.

one thing i took away with me from urbana is that the greatest temptation in any kind of relationship is to want to change the person into someone that you want them to be but ultimately God simply calls us to love them. This statement was in regards to the kind of attitude we should have in the area of missions. when we want to change people, that prevents us from valuing the person for who God created them to be. there's a fine line between wanting to change someone's habits and changing their character but at times either one may not be what should be done. i find that the disappointment of missions can sometimes be the expectation that going on a mission trip will change something about the people being served but then nothing appears to happen. i think those expectations can be thwarted when understanding that God calls us on a mission to show love to those who may never have experienced it to the fullest in their lives. afterall God is love, no?

so i guess my resolution this year is to learn how to view missions in the perspective of love. in a tangible way i hope to keep up better with current events so that i can learn to love people outside the little bubble i live in.