new year's day
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2008, welcome! Fans of even integers, this is your year! Claire (a fan of evens) and I (an oddball) enjoyed a fine start to the new year.
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It started the evening before with a couple good friends with no particular plans. So we taught them one of our favorite games, Settlers (thanks Matt and Kirsten). Another friend dropped by in the wee hours of the new year. During a lull in the conversation, he asked us, "Can you tell me about God from the Bible?" Yosuke and I talked for hours. He stayed the night.
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What we discovered, or, better yet, rediscovered, is the power and persistence of God's word. More than a year before, Claire and I had dinner with Yosuke at our house. At that time, we had a meaningful conversation about some of the surprising things the Bible has to say about life. I gave him a Japanese New Testament, circling some of my favorite verses. He seemed to have vanished for a year, only to come back into our lives during a providential fill-up at the local gas station. Fast forward to yesterday: it appears that over the past year God's word has maintained a hold on Yosuke, especially in the wake of a big motorcycle crash that nearly took his life.
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Later in the day, after our guests had left, Claire and I took a long walk around our neighborhood. As we walked up a steep hill, we saw the sun glowing orange over the horizon. This reminded us of how God often works in the lives of Japanese young adults like Yosuke: the will to follow Jesus, rather than taking the form of an individual 'altar-call' decision, is often part of a gradual, group-oriented direction to the light of God's love and truth. More participatory, less propositional. More sensory, less sales pitch. Claire and I prayed, talked, and walked quietly. As we did, God's companionship was palpable. An unhurried visit before the final gongs to Taisanji, the neighborhood shrine, helped us further appreciate the spiritual contours of Japanese culture.
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2008, welcome! Fans of even integers, this is your year! Claire (a fan of evens) and I (an oddball) enjoyed a fine start to the new year.
.
.
.
It started the evening before with a couple good friends with no particular plans. So we taught them one of our favorite games, Settlers (thanks Matt and Kirsten). Another friend dropped by in the wee hours of the new year. During a lull in the conversation, he asked us, "Can you tell me about God from the Bible?" Yosuke and I talked for hours. He stayed the night.
.
.
.
What we discovered, or, better yet, rediscovered, is the power and persistence of God's word. More than a year before, Claire and I had dinner with Yosuke at our house. At that time, we had a meaningful conversation about some of the surprising things the Bible has to say about life. I gave him a Japanese New Testament, circling some of my favorite verses. He seemed to have vanished for a year, only to come back into our lives during a providential fill-up at the local gas station. Fast forward to yesterday: it appears that over the past year God's word has maintained a hold on Yosuke, especially in the wake of a big motorcycle crash that nearly took his life.
.
.
.
Later in the day, after our guests had left, Claire and I took a long walk around our neighborhood. As we walked up a steep hill, we saw the sun glowing orange over the horizon. This reminded us of how God often works in the lives of Japanese young adults like Yosuke: the will to follow Jesus, rather than taking the form of an individual 'altar-call' decision, is often part of a gradual, group-oriented direction to the light of God's love and truth. More participatory, less propositional. More sensory, less sales pitch. Claire and I prayed, talked, and walked quietly. As we did, God's companionship was palpable. An unhurried visit before the final gongs to Taisanji, the neighborhood shrine, helped us further appreciate the spiritual contours of Japanese culture.
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posted by B & C at
6:02 PM
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