Sarah, my team leader, and I just went to run some errands near our ministry home in Siem Reap, Cambodia… and we were on bikes.
We have been here for about 3 days, and we’ve noticed that the traffic patterns are pretty different than home, and different than Thailand even. Here’s a visual:
1. 4 lane, divided road with a mix of bicycles, motorbikes, cars, vans, and delivery trucks.
2. The side of the road is filled with people going with and against traffic. These people include bikers, moto riders, food cart owners, and sometimes the occasional car.
3. Intersections are basically a free-for-all in my eyes. There is probably some sort of order, but I can’t fully comprehend it yet.
4. People change lanes constantly. I am not quite sure that the lane lines mean what they do in the good ol’ USA.
You have a good visual? I hope. It really is an efficient system, and I am sure that it works well for the people that are here, using it every day.
I was a little freaked out at first, carefully watching every move of the people around me, wondering if I was doing the right things. I was taking cues from everything around us and trying to calculate exactly what would happen. But… it was a lot easier when I realized that I wasn’t going to figure it all out. I just relaxed, was confident in my abilities to navigate this foreign situation, and thought about the goal.
My walk with God is very similar. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what God is doing around me. I tend to be over-analytical. I want to be able to calculate what the future is going to look like. I know that life doesn’t work like that, and God doesn’t work like that, either. God has a plan and he never reveals all of it. He does that for my benefit. He never gives me FULL understanding of new situations or challenging events. It seems daunting sometimes, but in the end, I appreciate it.
There is a certain joy in accomplishing something that you didn’t think you could. There is something wonderful about doing something that seems crazy at the time. There is an amazing feeling that comes with realizing what God was doing the whole time. It’s the best.
Even though I didn’t fully understand what was going on during our bike ride, I had a goal and I kept going. It’s what God wants. He doesn’t want us to know everything. He wants us to trust Him and keep moving forward.
