Remember when you were young and your mom told you to eat all your vegetables? You hated lettuce and, oh man, broccoli was on a whole different level. Gross! Look ahead 15 years to a time when you’re spending a few days in a village in Malaysia. You are in the heart of the rainforest, there are no stores within walking distance and all you have to your name is a half-eaten 3oz. jar of peanut butter. Dinner is served by your wonderful host family and the main course is…(drumroll please….) fried squid on rice! Are you missing that steamed broccoli yet? (Just to clarify, it really tasted like extra chewy spaghettios.)
It is month 9 of the World Race and I’ve learned to adapt to quite a few situations by now. A porcelain hole in the ground is deemed a “nice toilet” and cold bucket showers are actually quite refreshing. Waking up on a concrete floor wearing the same clothes from the day before (and sometimes the day before that) is no big deal. It’s amazing how much we really can handle and how little it truly takes to be comfortable.
When I started the Race I had tasted coffee on a few occasions in very small sips. My taste for tea was not much more than that of coffee. I’m the girl that only goes to Starbucks for social occasions and each time a friend will say, “Oh yea, you don’t like coffee, but I know you’ll love this mocha/frappe/latte/tall extra espresso drink.” Every time they get me! I try it, hate it and then apologize for being an uncultured hillbilly. That’s usually when they shrug and say that maybe it’s just an acquired taste. Well, I don’t know when I’ll acquire that taste but I’m giving up soon cause coffee is nasty. (Except for that Indian coffee that Mrs. Lily made for us…but it was so full of milk and sugar it didn’t even resemble coffee in the least.)
Back to my point… Last Friday my team went to a village about 45 minutes away from town. It was deep in the mountains, surrounded by trees and greenery. The house we entered was made of bamboo, the walls were weaved through and through, the floor had a little give, but it was strong nonetheless. A few believers gathered there to meet us. They were all from the same family and many of their neighbors were Muslim. We sat in a circle as we sang, shared stories and prayed together. It was after our small service that the rains came. Not like a spring shower, but an all out rainstorm! It was awesome to hear the power of the water pounding on the tin roof and even feel the drips that came through between the bamboo walls. I looked through the holes in the floor (the house was raised about 4-5 feet off the ground) to see the flip-flop pile by the front door beginning to slip away in the constant stream.
That’s when they brought out the tea and crackers. Like I might have mentioned earlier, I’m not a tea or coffee person. The only hot things I drink are hot chocolate and that greasy soup stuff they serve you at Japanese steakhouses. Being here on the Race has made me adventurous in what I eat and drink. I’ve learned to just give different dishes a try, and that goes for drinks too. I tried some juice in Africa, hated it and gave the rest to Taryn, but hey, I tried it! Usually when we serve ourselves it’s no big deal not to take a bit of everything, but if it’s directly offered by my host I make an effort out of politeness.
So, back to the tea and crackers… okay, I can handle this! Turns out it was chai. I drank several sips and didn’t even notice when half the glass was gone. That’s when it hit me. Praise the Lord, I am a real missionary! I like tea! I’m like the natives! Yea! Now this may not seem like a big deal to you, but this is coming from a girl who almost spewed her chai tea from training camp only 10 months ago. Hmm…maybe it is an acquired taste. I’ve tried more teas and coffees here than I ever did in America. In the past week I have eaten squid and some uniquely cooked kinds of fish that still looked up at me from the plate. I now like many things that I never did back home, or at least I didn’t think I did. I had sweet potatoes in Africa (they were white not orange), cooked pumpkin in Bulgaria, loads of watermelon in every country and many other foods I had previously avoided. Papaya may be the one fruit that I’ll never ever grow to love. It tastes like dirty socks. I digress…
So, I was thinking about this whole “It’s an acquired taste” thing, and I think it’s true for some things outside of food too. Take music for example. The first time I saw Phil Wickham in concert he was a new musician who wore girl pants and I had an awkward conversation with him at his CD table. I thought he was a weirdo and I didn’t really like his music. Now, I have tons of his songs on my iPod that I love to go to for worship. Want another example? Running and exercise. I’ve run more miles overseas than at home! It was a choice to get up and go everyday and then one day I just realized that it was fun.
Here’s one more…it’s a biggie. Reading the Bible. Yep, you read it right. Don’t act like I’m the only one. Sometimes reading the Word is a challenge. At times I don’t desire to read it, at other times I don’t feel worthy. There was a period in Thailand when distractions were all around and I kept feeling the conviction to get into the Word but I continually pushed it aside. After a few days it became hard to pick up because I thought, Lord, how can I read Your Word now? I’ve already screwed up, already put it off for so long. I don’t even deserve it anymore. That’s a lie straight from Satan. After that drought I felt farther from God and more moody than ever.
At debrief in Bangkok I decided to really fight for my time in the Word and finish my goal of reading it all before landing on American soil. The past few days have been great and even if I don’t feel like reading I pick it up anyway. Why? Because as a wise friend once said, “Discipline leads to desire and desire leads to delight.” If I want to delight myself in the Lord, it starts with the discipline of reading His Word. What starts as an obligation grows to something so much more in time.
I’m not ashamed to say that spending time in 1 Chronicles doesn’t thrill my soul every time I read it. I will admit that there are times when I don’t love the Lord with everything. It’s those times when I have to ask Him to help me learn to love Him, to trust Him, to lead me to delight in the Bible. After that I come to find myself walking and smiling without even realizing it because He is always on my mind. The Lord and His love tastes so good at first bite, (and every bite after) but as a human I forget that sometimes and I have to ask Him to remind me again and again as I decide to come back to the feast for seconds.
