G.R.I.T.

Thoughts on godly character

By Jacob (sorry this hasn't been more regular)

I wonder what it would really be like to be a man of God. Who knows, anyway? David started out so right and then got very off course with Bathsheba. Moses tried to do right, ran for 40 years, then when he got the chance said he wasn't ready and ended up still not getting to go into the promised land. Joshua didn't destroy ALL of the peoples he came into contact with as he was commanded by the Lord. Noah got drunk. Adam messed it up for all of us. Elijah was scared of Jezebel. Paul killed Christians. Peter couldn't keep his mouth shut. Abraham lied repeatedly about Sarai/Sarah being his sister instead of his wife. Isaac (and Rebekah) had a favorite son each. Jacob stole his brother's blessing and birthright and deceived his uncle. Joseph was prideful and almost paid with his life for it. Solomon had more wives than I have relatives. Samson was subdued by women. The disciples followed Peter back to "go fishing" (I've been told the translation there means, "I'm going back to being a fisherman" or its equivalent). Jeremiah whined and wheeped. Isaiah was and lived among a people of unclean lips and hearts.

So what am I to do? Christ isn't mentioned in any way as being flawed (of course, right?), but all of His temptations aren't described. Only 3 of them in the desert plus in the garden of Gethsemane where He could have chosen another way but He obeyed the Father. That was His perfect example. But lets look at the opposite side of things now. David was "a man after God's own heart." Moses was used by God to rescue over 600,000 men (about 2 million in total by most estimates) from Pharoah and lead Israel into the promised land after several hundred years of captivity. Joshua led and conquered the promised land like no one else could. Remember Jericho? Noah saved all of humanity by being the only one righteous enough God would allow to even live we'd gotten so bad. Adam actually charted and paved the way for Christ to come and bring us salvation. He is the 'father of all mankind.' Elijah was more than a conquerer in his lifetime and is considered the greatest prophet. "Follow me as I follow Christ," Paul said. Then he lived it out until his execution in Rome. Peter was the rock upon whom Christ was going to build His church and Jesus began that by not only Peter being the leader of the disciples but at Pentecost too. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have blessed the world with their obedience and promises God gave them. Even now to us as followers of Christ we have received the fullness of that promise. Joseph saved the future of Israel through what his brothers meant for evil. Solomon was given "one wish" and chose the right answer- wisdom. Samson is an example today of how we can use our strength, even when we consider our lives over and wasted, all for God even in our dying moments. The disciples were hand-selected by Christ to carry the message of the Gospel- the Good News Message of the story of the redemption of man. Jeremiah never saw most of his prophecy come to pass and yet he still was a herald. Isaiah was undone and, when God said, "Whom shall we send?" he responded, "Here I am, send me!"

Maybe we're a little too hard on ourselves. I know I am. These past few days have been crazy busy but good. Monday Norman's family (Norman, Susan, Chlose, Cameron and Melody), Andrew and I all went to an ABWE FC (Field Council) Meeting. It was a great privilege to see everyone again and be encouraged. It was a long 2+ hour trip to Miyakonojo both ways. In the end, however, it was worth it. Getting just a taste, a preview of what God might have for me in the future if I were to become part of that group was a start. Yet, I'm here without a VISA for now. After arriving back at Norman's apartment, Keiko was almost done translating the additional documents needed to send to the VISA office to get the first of the two-step VISA paper process. She was so helpful and when we finished I told her I'd buy her some Baskin Robbins Ice Cream sometime as a "thank you."

Last night we went to dinner with Yousuke (Yo-sue-kay) and 4 of his friends- one is a DJ the other 3 are either Nurses (2) or in school to be a Nurse (1). The conversation flowed really well as always with Yousuke. You just ask questions and get him talking and things go great. I am trying to encourage everyone to do as much as possible in conversations, but it just seems like the language barrier is more than our group can get past lately. It has been a little troublesome but I think we're all still growing in that. After a great dinner, we were supposed to go bowling. The place Yousuke had in mind was very close so we just walked there. When we got there, however, their lanes were busy until 10pm. Change of plans there...

We decided to go to another bowling alley about a 10-minute walk away, but when we went outside it was raining pretty strongly. The next overhang where we were walking to was only about 150 feet away, so after offering my coat to one of Yousuke's friends we just walked to it. They started walking more slowly and I thought nothing of it. They were a pretty close group of 3 girls and I was walking and talking with Yousuke while Norman and the rest of the group were walking a little faster.

The more we walked, though, the more they started to fall behind. I asked Yousuke if everything was all right and so he gave them a phone call. They said basically that they needed to head back home because they just had enough time for only like 1 game at the other place since they had to work early. At first I thought it was just one of them that had to work and the others just decided to call it a night, but after talking with Keiko and her explaining it to me that she thought it was all three of them I think that was the reason. Long story short, it put a damper on the night because Yousuke is great at English and outgoing and so were his friends, but now there was only 2 of them and 7 of us. My thinking is that it's harder to have 1-on-1 or 1-on-2 conversations with Yousuke and his friend whose name escapes me vs. 5 of them before and 7 of us.

After weaving our way through what seemed to be an underground mall, a store worker in that mall helped us find our way to the bowling place. We didn't really get much of a say in things, so to top it off after 3 of Yousuke's friends left, Yousuke and his friend were on the same lane with Norman. The 3 guys and 3 girls were teamed up and I really was kind of frustrated. I guess maybe it was an opportunity I wanted to take advantage of (at least I hope that's what it was- I am trying to check my motives always for Christ and not "just having fun" or anything else) and us all get a chance to be as Christ said, "witnesses."

The evening went pretty well with a few hiccups, but that's to be expected. Incredibly, I do know that there was a reason for Yousuke's other friends leaving that I can't really talk about on here, but I will say this: God is so good to give us what we need at just the right time. We just can't give up. That's the lesson here. We bowled 2 games and then went home. It was a long day, but a good day.

Today was rainy except for when we ran this morning. A nice feeling for sure, but the day was just slow in a lot of respects. We did a lot of study and discussion on what could be improved, likes, dislikes, etc. about GRIT and the summer. It's good to have those discussions because even if nothing changes, most people feel like they're being heard out if nothing else. I think it also did a lot to build our team up since we haven't particularly been doing many "team-building" exercises this year because of all of our people time. We went to Mr. Ohashi's house after a Blue Book (the 3rd book in the Green, Purple and Blue Book Series) from 3:30 to 4:30. Dinner was at 5:15 and instead of our usual Tuesday night conversation at the Mishima's, we ended up staying home because the Chinese girls couldn't come and the Mishima's weren't having the normal children's time. We played a few cool word-based games and Keiko and Susan were both able to play. I think it's really been great to have Keiko a part of things these past two years and Susan to join in when she can because most of her time is taken up with 3 children under 7 years old.

God has blessed us so much more than we can imagine. We just need to open our eyes to be it and see it.

posted by Jacob @ 3:30 PM