It's just a year...

  My sister once wisely advised me to keep track of my life because its key to understanding how I got to where I am. I may have lost track of my life for a moment, so now as we near the end of this year I look back to see how  life has changed.

            C. S. Lewis expressed in his book The Screwtape Letters  that, “to be in time is to be subject to change.” I think my life has proven this proposition to be true. My life is not the same as I left it a year and a half ago when I boarded a plane for Argentina. I do not know that I fully understood when boarding it how greatly the decision to study overseas for a year would affect things. Now, ironically, as a young man born into a Midwest middle class white English speaking family, I at times find myself  speaking in broken awkward English phrases, and feel I could better express myself if only those around me spoke Spanish. As a 20 year old man I am suffering an identity crisis. The relationships in my life were stretched and tried, some strengthened others faded. Lastly, the paths of my life seem to have been uprooted and thrown over uncharted territory. I don’t regret it in the slightest. I believe I followed God to Argentina. So how did I get here? Easy, a decision was made to step out in faith, but what just happened and what all was affected I am still sorting out.

            I have always known who I am: a pastor’s son, a nice kid, an A/B student, a funny guy, generally loving and outgoing. So what happened to me? I feel as if to some degree I lost track of myself in Argentina, which in truth isn’t all bad. A cross cultural experience is a funny thing to describe to anyone who has never experienced one, but it certainly comes with its own unique set of challenges and learning moments. These heated tests and prolonged pressure have the opportunity to turn something more pure and useful, or burn and break it. At times its both. When I stepped into a different world the “me” I knew had stayed in North America. These people didn’t know him, and weren’t necessarily as impressed with this foreigner as he was with himself. One of the hardest aspects of living in a different culture is role reversal. I went from being a competent leader and an effective communicator to a lost kid who couldn’t speak. My pride took many a critical blow, and often left it nursing its wounds in my “cuarto” not as quick to throw itself out there as it had once been. “When not met with accolades why bother?” my heart of hearts muttered through gritted teeth that which my lips would never dare utter. It disturbed me to hear myself as my true colors shown.  Along with the revelation of this heart, of sin, I came to another daunting realization… not everyone is American; not everyone thinks, acts, and lives like me. For some, my big over the top American personality was a hard pill to swallow. Here went the chisel of the Lord, going to work on things as my pride and personality, while He opened up my world view, and as I changed.

            All this was taking place south of the equator, but what of those relationships and opportunities left in the United States? Surely the God who had held the sun in place for a day could halt the lives of my loved ones as I was not with them, so that I wouldn’t miss anything too important; after all it was only a year. However, the Lord had not made such promises to me, and so He did not keep them. The Lord led me to Argentina and that meant intrinsically that I was not anywhere but there. I was not with my loved ones I left behind. I was not able to keep perusing those relationships. Life in the US kept happening. Parties as well as funerals were missed, laughter as well as tears, victories as well as trials. My sister, who is one of my closest friends in the whole world, is now engaged, and I missed all of her dating relationship with Dan, her fiancé. I missed the getting to know each other phase, the giddy about it phase, and the praying seriously about it phase. I just simply wasn’t there. ..not for their relationship to develop nor to cultivate my own. I had it very much in my heart to pursue a precious friend of mine, but moving to Argentina halted those plans. Try as I did I was not able to be with her while I was in Argentina. We weren’t able to “be together” with an ocean between us. Being together I have found is crucial when you are considering marrying someone. My relationships were stretched and tested by distance and a lack of communication as life continued happening to everyone regardless of their location. Some strengthened some gave way.  In those same months new relationships were built as well. (often that is how life works) I can now happily say by the grace of God I have dear friends and brothers from South and Central America. Lucas, Ruth, Emmanuel, and Gaston just to name a few are all friends dear to me that I will forever count as my brothers and sisters.

            Once my personality was shaken, my relationships were altered, and I already had “given” my things, my location, and my nonexistent wealth for the sake of following Him, what more did He desire? In the process of dying to self and learning to let Christ live through me He is redefining everything. So there I stood, very unstable. What was left? Simply my plans. From an early age I had always felt I was going to spend my life in the ministry. Outside of that I felt that I would spend it somewhere where they spoke English. I was certain God had not designed me to learn languages. But God has uprooted the certainty of my plans and future projections and scattered them across the map. It’s strange to think that one decision can change the course of your life so considerably. After my time in Argentina I am considering church planting overseas or Spanish ministry in the United States. He has proven to me truly all things are possible with Him. In light of that truth, I pray the next time I hear the whisper of His will I will be all the quicker to follow His leading.

            So yes, it was only a year, but in this ever changing world it affected me greatly. Some things were gained, some things were lost, and others were simply changed. But I would not change the decision I made for the world. There were difficult moments and challenges and even consequences to following Him, but the reward is far greater.  Philippians 3:7-8 “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”