Honesty... the best policy?

September 26, 2009

            Today, Carmen invited me to go to her Spanish friend’s birthday party and then go to the lake tonight and see if we can see Northern Lights, but I’m just feeling a bit like being alone. I’ve had a nice, quiet day and have worked on a few things that I’ve been meaning to do. I also had a lot of good thinking and writing time and I hope to continue that. I guess I will have to see God’s wonderful Northern Lights another night.

            Lately I’ve just been thinking a lot about why God has placed me here. After Beach Project and all I learned this past summer, I feel like there is such a potential here for me to make a difference and I don’t feel like I’ve really known how to approach that. Because I do not make friends easily, I can be a bit more distant than the other kids may be with one another. I want to form closer relationships but I am not usually the one who has to pursue those. I usually wait for others to pursue deep relationships with me; so being out of my element is throwing me for a loop. I would love to leave this country in December feeling like I’ve made new best friends all over the world.

            I found my pastor’s sermons online today and I was very excited. I haven’t been to church here yet and I just don’t really know how to even figure out when it is and how I can get to an English preacher. I know this may be due to a lack of initiative on my part, but I hope that I will find the courage to find out and start going and maybe meet some people. I brought a couple of books with me, C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity and Don Miller’s Through Painted Deserts. I’ve already read Mere Christianity, but it is such a good book, I wanted to bring it. It’s kind of a tough read and I really love his intelligence and he is just a brilliant man. I opened it today and flipped through all of the parts I had underlined. It’s fun for me to do that and read what I underlined and remember the first time I read it. I hope to read Don Miller while I travel. My friend Jessica told me it’s a great traveling book. It is a sequel to Blue Like Jazz and I absolutely loved that book. I think I will take it with me on the trip to Rovaniemi on Tuesday.

            From what I’ve heard about this place, the people are not too concerned with God. The Finns that I have talked to were very open and honest and not afraid to talk about God. They didn’t try to convince me that they love God and are good people the way many Americans do. They didn’t argue that their actions don’t necessarily mean that they do not care about their Creator, they simply know whether or not God is a part of their life or not. In some ways, I find it more refreshing. I am not afraid to talk to people about God because they are not afraid to talk about it either. They don’t become awkward and anxious or reluctant to go down that road, because they have MADE a decision. Unfortunately, many Americans have MADE their decision as well. They are just unaware of it or in denial about it. If you haven’t made the decision to accept Christ and follow Him, then you’ve made the decision to reject Him. Every time.

            When I talked to Timo about church, he told me that most Finns do not go to church and that the ones who do don’t act like it. He offered to go with me and Rebekah to a church one day that was in Finnish… he obviously thought we just enjoy sitting inside a chapel on a pew or something, because listening to someone preach in Finnish wasn’t exactly the Sunday-morning I had pictured in my mind. I did appreciate the offer though. I guess the good thing is that they do not have ill feelings towards you if you are a Christian. They are in touch with themselves enough to admit their own positions on the subject and without shame. It reminds me of my favorite verse:

Revelation 3:15-16

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Of course, I would love for them to be on fire for Christ instead of on the other side. But there are few things more frustrating than arguing with someone who thinks they are on fire for Christ when their lives paint a completely different picture.

Matthew 7:16-18

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

And since I don’t think my own words can sum up this post better…

Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’