Pre-Christmas Gift Exchanges

The bustle of the holiday season has once again dawned upon us. Even though over here in the Czech Republic they do not traditionally celebrate either of the first of the holidays on the American calendar, my fellow ex-patriots and I have been toiling diligently to change that fact.

All Hallows’ Eve arrived first. Now, this holiday is not one unknown to the Europeans. However, instead of gathering with friends around miniature princesses and goblins, the Czechs pilgrimage with their families to the graves of their ancestors and pass the day sprucing them up and remembering those gone before. In a way, it seems to be a silent protest against those who would wish to rewrite the history books in order to lessen the turmoil that has engulfed this region for decades. It is a refusal to deny their past. At the same time however, there exists a great push not to remain stuck in what has gone before. And so it was with eager smiles that the Czechs and other international students swapped holidays with us. In exchange for us learning about All Saint’s Day, we attempted to share a little about Halloween. Step one: everyone had to knock and give the proper Halloween greeting for trick-or-treating in order to enter. (Needless to say, the chant that rolls off the tongues of toddlers back in the States took some practice for our foreign friends for whom many English is a second language.) Then, it was over to the pumpkins: scrapping out the gooey seeds, designing scary faces, and brandishing the carving knives. Lightening these at midnight, we culminated the evening by dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” with homemade cider in our “zombie” hands. If the fact that those who took the pumpkins home kept them for two extra weeks says anything, I think it was overall a success that we can expect to glimpse popping up throughout Germany, Turkey, Australia, Spain, Poland, and of course the Czech Republic in the years to come.

Unknowingly, we had created a great demand for the holidays to arrive and since, Christmas was still a ways, we decided to attempt a Czech Thanksgiving. After all, the pilgrims were European, right? We figured they wouldn’t mind… Anyways, after an evening of food and festivities enjoyed with the family of friends God has given me here, everyone went home adorned with crafted turkey and pilgrim hats covering sleepy eyes that were closing as their full bellies set in.

Such cultural exchanges have been continuous here, living in a foreign country surrounded by hundreds of other international students from every spot your finger could find to land were you to spin a globe blindfolded. They go beyond grand celebrations and holiday evenings. For instance, this week, the Czechs and the Americans swapped celebrities. The latter presented a thirty minute version of what it means to be an American before all of the international students while attempting to include facets beyond the stereotypes and images that have preceded our personal voyages across the great pond. In exchange, the Czechs introduced us to the President of their country Václav Klaus. Though the Americans received the far better gift in this swap, we are determined not to give up. The holidays have only begun. Many more cultural white elephant swaps are bound to come. And, thankfully, the greatest gift this season defies being defined by any single culture. In such a swap as this, it is one life for another. Yet, once again we come out having received the far better end, knowing that we gave nothing but rubbish in exchange for everything of value.

When It's Storming Outside

Yesterday, as I rolled over on the couch I have learned to call my bed, I glanced out the window much as a groundhog peeks out of his hole. Gazing from our relative perches, we both desire to see what the weather holds for us. If things look ominous and chilly, I, like the groundhog, roll back over to wait in hopes my fortunes will change. But yesterday, I just stared. Great white things were pouring from solid white above and falling to whiteness below. It took me, a snow-virgin Southerner, a moment to realize what was going on. Brno was experiencing her first snow of the season.

Now as fun and lovely as this may sound, it does have me quite a bit worried as we are only in the first week of November. Nonetheless, the time for snowstorms has come. And such white masses are not the only storms rolling through right now. Across the great pond, South Carolina has seen one cloud her skies this past week too. She is walking head down, shoulders hunched struggling as the pellets pour down. Grieving and questioning are racking my campus. It is an awful time. In such immense grief, though, we know that we are neither the first nor the last who will face such tragedies. Last year, it was Virginia Tech. Tomorrow, it could be at home. We live in a world that has fallen among fallen people. While it is fallen, it is not random. We know that “the God who controls the wheeling galaxies and who spoke before the foundation of the world must be the God who holds the smallest circumstances of [our lives] in His hands. We are encompassed on all sides by the Almighty. ‘His tender mercies are over all His works,’ ‘steadfast love surrounds him who trusts in the Lord,’ and ‘underneath are the Everlasting Arms.’ Over, around, underneath. We are enfolded ” (Elisabeth Elliot).

Our God is in charge and His will is being fulfilled. When we read what we acknowledge as the “Good News,” the snow and rains almost drip out of the pages. Storms are everywhere. Yet as the centurion recognizes through faith as his daughter lay dying, every storm is obedient to the command of the Ruler of all just as his soldiers unquestionably obeyed earthly orders. In Job, Elihu declares, “He [God] loads the thick cloud with moisture; He scatters the cloud of His lightening. And it is turned round about by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands then upon the face of the habitable earth. Whether it be for correction or for His earth [generally] or for His mercy and loving-kindness.”

They look different. They consist of different things. But God is the Supreme Creator of all, and He is over each of these storms. Storms are often the very place we hear Him the clearest; they are the opener for the concert of His voice. For in tragedy, knees crumple to the floor in anguish. The only other instance in which we see mankind universally hitting their knees is in a posture of subservience. And thus we hit our knees to pray. There we recognize our unworthiness and seek the face of the Father. This is not a coincidence. During tragedies, we are already on our knees in a posture of obedience and humbleness. Knowing we are not enough and will never be. Knowing He is and always has been and always will be. That is why the God of all, the God over every storm came and faced them in the greatest way possible. That is why He died on the cross. So that He could cloak our unworthiness in His worthiness, and thus covered, we rise with Him to a new life beyond this fallen one now. This is the same God who commands the lightening and thunder. This is the God I serve, and the God who loves you so much He died for you before you could ever recognize what He was doing and knowing you could never express appropriate thanks. This is the God who longs for you to know Him. His name is Jesus. It is Him we praise in and out of storms, knowing in Him we have nothing to fear.

Remember, we have a God who has been known to sometimes quiet the waves of the storms and sometimes to set foot and walk on them.

"Lonely meditation, the study of nature and the contemplation of the universe lead the solitary to aspire continually to the maker of all things."
-Jean-Jacque Rousseau

Hello all! Over here in the Czech Republic, the Indian summer is holding (for which I, as a born and raised Southerner, am quite grateful) and classes are under way- which in typical CZ style means I go to class around 6 hours a week, unless my professors are out of the country or at the doctor’s office.

Needless to say, these elements combined, I find myself with quite a bit of time. As you know, for me, this is a novel concept. But I am coming to see that we are commanded to live times of stillness and rejuvenation: God has set the example as the Supreme Creator God who always is and always will be when he marked the Sabbath on which to “rest.” The Israelites were commanded to celebrate the year of Jubilee and to allow the land to rest itself. The Psalms tell us over and over to “be still.” Our bodies and minds were created in the light of honoring such a Sabbath. Now, this is not to say that we are not to toil hard the other 6 days, 6 years, etc. because we know we are to do everything assured that we do it for and in the Father’s name… and that includes resting.

And so I have passed many an afternoon following Jesus up the mountain (well, perhaps it is more a hill though it sure feels mountainous when you trek up it) or out into the forested hills of the Moravian countryside. There seems to be something about conversations with our Lord that seem clearer out there in the great beauty that envelops one as it, itself, reflects the great Beauty, with I as only an onlooker.

With C.S. Lewis, I wonder, “What more (than witnessing the beauty of Nature), you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much more… We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words- to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become a part of it.”

“We cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so… When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather the greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch” (“The Weight of Glory”).

Can you imagine? Or in the chaos have we forgotten how? Perhaps it is time, as Jesus said, to be little children. To rake together and jump into a pile of fallen autumn leaves which can but whisper of a glory we see in faded colors. To rustle our imaginations and to delight in the possibilities.

“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

The first of many travels

Dearest friends and family back home in the States,

I am alive and well in the Czech Republic! I can hardly believe that today continues the second of many fine weeks that lay ahead here in the heart of Europe. Thinking back upon all that has transpired as I sit here looking out my window at a crisp autumn day and taking tea and biscuits (courtesy of some dear Aussies), I wish I could call you (at a price not astronomical) so we could chat together about life. As I would be broke quite shortly after starting that venture, I guess this other form of technology must suffice.

Many things have passed in so little time; yet, it seems easy to know where to begin. David proclaims in the Psalms, “With my voice I cry to the Lord, and He hears and answers me out of His holy hill. I lay down and slept; I wakened again, for the Lord sustains me.”

It was quite a journey over to this foreign land. Yet does He not define the meaning of “trustworthy?!” And so it was time to step out of the boat. Walking up to the ticket counter in the lovely Hartsfield-Jackson airport, a different clerk stepped up behind the counter of British Airways (all of whose employees are British mind you) and called me forward. Upon flipping to my Visa, she paused and looked back at me. “You are going to the Czech Republic (a country of 10 million people)?” she questioned. Nervous, I nodded in affirmation wondering what could be wrong. “I married a British man,” she continued, “but I am Czech.” She went on to upgrade my seat, give me all kinds of tips and advice, and sent me on my way with her best wishes. I knew the truth that this journey I had begun would be too great for me and all I could do was give each moment back to the One who is faithful. Moment after moment during the following two days of travel, God was.

I began reading “The Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne. He writes of how Christians have “insulated” themselves from miracles. We have assured ourselves of our every need and desire, and so in our minds find no need to ask God to move. Well, arriving in a foreign country where all you can ask is “Do you speak my language,” is one way God has of stripping away the bubble wrap. Missing the last bus to Brno after a two hour plane delay with temporarily “misplaced” luggage is another. Each “instance” was one of praise as the Lord forced me to see that I have utterly no control over anything and He holds the WHOLE EARTH in His beautiful hands. Miracles now have faces in my memories (though somehow I never managed to get a single name from my companions, just a few chuckles when I would ask about who these people helping me were. God must have found my attempts at small talk quite amusing!)

So finally at 2am I arrived in my new home, Brno, Czech Republic. Yet, as I got off the bus I knew I would have no way to contact anyone to receive me but the Lord. I had no international cell phone, no Czech change to use a pay phone, and it was 2am. There weren’t exactly hordes of people milling about. Peace became tangible though as God made it clear that He is Good and desires to provide. And He did. I got off the bus, hoping someone else would get off also so I could ask to use their mobile to call my Rotary host sponsor even though it was such an awful hour. Quite soon, I realized no one else planned on getting off. Such are the plans of man! The only other people on the platform were three guys. Two got on, and the third just stood there, looking at me, as if waiting for me to speak. So I asked him in Czech if he spoke English. “Yes, let me take you where you are going” he answered in a beautifully familiar language. I had not even had time to ask him to borrow his phone. And so, by the Lord and Him alone, He brought me to Vinarska, the place I live now.

The journey has only begun but already He has done so much for me. I came to serve Him, yet it has been Him providing for me. My heart cries out with Mary, “My soul magnifies and extols the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked upon the low station and humiliation of His handmaiden.”

Praise the God of heaven and of earth!