Out of the Comfort Zone

2-28-2008 I've had this post sitting around for a while, and thought I would at least show the first part. If you guys have any thoughts or passages of God's word having to do with this, please share! Sharing is CARING.

“And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”

Deuteronomy 31:8

This statement may seem strange coming from a worrywart who fears even deep water and roller coasters. I will say it anyway: In order to glorify God and carry out His will, one has to put Him first and cast their fears, their reservations, to Him. When I was a little girl, I was characteristically sweet-tempered and compliant, except for when someone would try to convince me to try something I was scared to do. I still have this tendency to clam up and try to avoid participating in things I'm not used to, whether it's learning how to swim or being a genuine welcomer to the reserved new guy at youth group. Yet, through my reading and examples throughout history, I see that lives are changed in moments when someone makes an unselfish, brave choice.

Think about it. In Pride and Prejudice, what would happen if Mr. Darcy didn't have the courage to dismiss the social barriers between him and Elizabeth, if he were too shy or proud to propose to her — twice — and explain his past acts? What situation have you been in where you didn't want to do the required task coming into it, but you later saw the task was essential and the process of it quite bearable?

Now that the importance of stepping out of one's comfort zone has been established, I need to explain how to go about it. More later.

A Pretty Poem I Forgot About

I took that picture last winter. You can click it to see the words better.



So why am I posting such a famous poem that you can already look at in forty different websites? I guess I want to remember what my class and I learned in English 12. John Keats gives too much glory to the creation rather than its Creator, but this is still such a thoughtful little poem. I like John Keats because he was a quiet, sickly person who still took pleasure in what little of the outside world he saw. I wonder what remote jungles are like in their autumn season? One always imagines them as green and in the sweltering heat of the summer.



I could take you through my scattered thought processes much longer, like Anne of Green Gables, but I'll leave you with something solid. Check out how David praises God for nature in Psalm 104. He begins and ends with the right application to seeing how big and beautiful the earth is: honestly praising the God who made it all.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees; hooray for beautiful Washington!

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cell.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,

--While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

School Days

Hi from LaShani! How is everyone doing? I wanted to let my family and friends know I am doing well. I miss you all very much. It is a whopping five degrees here in Waukesha, Wisconsin. It's going to be eighteen degrees on Tuesday! Whoopee! Maybe I'll be able to walk to work by Thursday. McDonald's is only about a fifteen-minute walk away. I was lost the first time I tried walking there on my own, but now I know the way. Most of the ten-something inches of snow have been shoveled from the sidewalks. Waukesha will be such a pretty little town in spring time.

New Tribes Bible Institute of Waukesha has a little over two hundred students in freshman, sophomore, and senior semesters. I have enjoyed meeting so many missionary kids (MKs) from every corner of the world, from Mongolia to Brazil to Papua New Guinea. God has been teaching me so much through His word already. We are going through the Bible the same way the New Tribes Mission missionaries teach it to the tribal people: chronologically from Genesis. Even in looking at the creation of the world, you can already see God's plan for us to have a relationship in eternity with Him.

One thing I have been doing in my free time is learning worship songs, hymns, and of course video game songs on the piano. The worship songs are thanks to a new friend lending me some of his music, and the vast array of music our ladies have on the second floor lounge. New Tribes is composed of a four-story building, a gym, apartments for married students and teachers, and a chapel. The four-story building, a former resort hotel, has two big classrooms, deans' offices, the kitchen and dining hall, two lounges, a laundry room, and the dorms for single and some married students.

Well, I didn't tell you very much, but I should go get some homework done. I will try and snail-mail some people like my dear former teachers soon. Grace Academy people, I hope the Snow Retreat was fabulous! I will have a wireless card for my laptop pretty soon, so I will be able to put up some pictures of life in Waukesha. I love you all very much. Please pray that I would be disciplined about meeting God in His word and prayer on my own, not being satisfied with what I'm fed in class. Thanks for that.

Really, there's so much to tell I don't know where to start. I welcome your questions, which you can leave in the Comments box.