My life is currently dominated by studying Japanese. It’s
pretty much all I do. A lovely friend gave me the opportunity to go to the
beach in North Carolina over Labor Day weekend. It was beautiful and relaxing
and occasionally a fascinating (Southern) cultural experience! And I flipped
through flash cards on the beach. I’m pretty much always studying Japanese. I
have class 5 days per week, 5 hours per day, one on one. And then there are the
hours and hours of studying outside of class. I have been in class for 4 weeks
and completed 6 chapters in the book. I think you learn a lot about a culture when
you study the language. In Japanese, I’ve learned that there is no distinction
between singular and plural or between the present and the future. I’ve learned
that pronunciations imported 1,600 years ago are still considered “imports”.
I’ve learned that stroke order (the process of drawing kanji – the imported
Chinese characters – knowing which line is drawn when and in what direction you
move the pencil/brush) is very important. I’ve also discovered that, when under
pressure, the only foreign language that pops into my head is Portuguese. I start Japanese Area Studies next week (1 full day about every 2 weeks for 10 months). That should be really interesting.
When taking a break from Japanese, I’ve been reading John
Stott’s book “The Contemporary Christian”. I’m only part way through it, but I
would highly recommend it. I’ve underlined a lot, but I have two favorite
quotes so far. For one, his definition
of sin strikes right to the core: “…what the Bible means by ‘sin’ is primarily
self-centredness. For God’s two great commandments are first that we love him
with all our being and secondly that we love our neighbour as we love
ourselves. Sin, then, is the reversal of this order. It is to put ourselves
first, virtually proclaiming our own autonomy, our neighbour next when it suits
our convenience, and God somewhere in the background.”
My other favorite quote
was his succinct and eloquent discussion of how we find our humanness in
relationships of love: “True love, however, places constraints on the lover,
for love is essentially self-giving. And this brings us to a startling Christian paradox. True freedom is freedom to be my true
self, as God made me and meant me to be.
And God made me for loving. But loving is giving, self-giving. Therefore, in order to be myself, I have to deny myself and give
myself. In order to be free, I
have to serve. In order to live, I
have to die to my own self-centredness. In order to find myself, I have to lose myself in loving.”
In other thoughts… Over the summer, I posted links to
several commencement speeches where the speaker talks about failure and how
it’s okay if our dreams fail. I
think those talks spoke to me, because I think we are often defined not by how
we live in supposed perfection but by how we face difficulty and failure – or
the risk of failure. Some of the
darkest moments in my life have been turning points that have grown me as a
person, and specifically as a person of faith. Some of the biggest moments of risk in my career have turned
into wonderful opportunities and fascinating experiences. To act out of fear – of failure or of
pain – is to withdraw from life. To take a step of faith, to follow where God leads, to trust in His
goodness, to take what the world might call a great risk, is to experience the
wonder of God and His creation. The process may be terrifying, but when you stand at the other end and
look back, you see an abundance of reasons for praise.
Finally, adding to my current trend of including fun or interesting links:
Here is an article about how God is good – ALL the time –
including singleness (as the author was at the time). I think it's both amusing and encouraging.
I think this video on “Wrong Worship” is hilarious. And maybe just a little convicting.
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