Today in Ethiopia, it is March 28, 2009. The Ethiopian calendar and clock are completely different than the rest of the world. What we call 6 a.m. here is what the Habesha (Ethiopians) call “noon.” In many ways, life here is like literally stepping back in time. It is a contradictory collaboration of past and present…cars and donkeys both being used as transportation, primitive living next door to a high rise hotel with high speed wifi, and living in 2009 but also 2017.
Local man using his horse and buggy for transport…literally walked past him to get to…
…the hotel where my teammates and I got wifi!
Living in a country that is literally like walking back in time sometimes, can be so bizarre and bring up so many different thoughts. In Ethiopia, I’m 26 again…it seems like not that long ago, but at the same time it seems like a lifetime ago. 26. Before my marriage. Before my divorce. Before graduate school. Before many big mistakes. I can’t help but to ask myself what it would be like to go back in time just 8 years. What would your life be like if you could go back 8 years and make different decisions? Would you change anything with the knowledge you have now?
Although it isn’t actually like walking back in time like some of us would enjoy, it gives us some bigger things to sit and think about. For me, I think of God’s love and grace. What is so amazing about God’s grace is that we don’t have to go back in time to change thing. That amazing grace is very much like God wiping the slate clean and starting over. God doesn’t hold our past mistakes against us or keep score (read about His perfect love in 2nd Chronicles). Often times, we would like to go back and change things in our past, but it comes at the cost of the wisdom we gain from past choices. So not only are we forgiven for our past, we get to keep our wisdom and learn from our mistakes! I’m reminding myself to learn from the past, but stay mentally in the present.
Love y’all.
