Cross-cultural, Cross-cultural Adjustment, Faith, Fridays with Robynn, God, Grace, Grief, home, Identity, Life, Life in general, Moving, Robynn, Third Culture Kid, Transition, Travel
Dear Robynn, I enjoyed your "Friday's with Robynn" post (A Hidden Pearl. January 29,2016). It really resonated with me, so thank you for posting it. It was very thought provoking for me. Earlier this year I experienced a very similar feeling to the one you had having returned from Thailand. My friends and I arrived back from India on January 5th. But my first day of work felt so meaningless. I sat behind my desk and stared at my computer thinking, "who care's about organizing this stuff....!?!" It felt so pointless and so mundane. And it took me a long time to get back into the swing of things and be motivated again. It brings back fears I have of being trapped and not being able to move and travel or something. But at the same time I wonder what is it that I hope to find overseas that I cannot find here? Being in India this Christmas was fantastic, but it showed me that even if I was to move back it would not be the same as all the memories I cherish and the experiences I wish to recreate there. As a TCK am I cursed to always be discontent where I am living? Am I always going to be trying to re-establish what I lost? It scares me.
Thinking of the Pearl of Great Price is comforting in the midst of all this going on in my head and in my heart. Jesus is here in America just as much as He is in India and Pakistan or anywhere else for that matter. I feel a level of guilt for not allowing Jesus to be my stability and the center of my affection and the source of my contentment. I need to move away from this idea that I will find peace in any country of this world and move toward knowing I will find peace in the One who created this world. I think its high time I started to search for this Pearl! And like you said, that hunt for Him will never disappoint!
I found that book you lent me very challenging; The Wisdom of Stability, by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. I love the idea of building that strong community with the people around me and knowing a place and its people intimately, but putting down roots and making that decision that this is where I will live and work and help to build the Lord's kingdom is terrifying.
Dear Young Third Culture Adult,
Thank you again for reading what I write! And thanks for so honestly interacting with it too. I love your heart.
I can so relate to the fears you've articulated. I still fear being stuck more than anything. Sometimes when I think about the decision we made to stay here in Kansas I feel a sense of panic begin to creep up from my toes. The idea that we are trapped here, in this house, in this city, in this country freaks me out. I have to constantly present my heart to Jesus asking for daily grace and new mercies.
I think I probably told you this story already...but when my husband Lowell and I decided to buy the little blue house on Colorado Street I resisted. I was anxious to move out of the trailer court only because I really wanted a basement here in Tornado Town. But the idea of BUYING felt so permanent and so forever and so stocks and barrels like. I felt claustrophobic. It stirred up anxiety in me. After we had put our signature on hundreds of papers, initialed countless more and signed our souls over to the bank Lowell and I went out for lunch. Most couples, I imagine, celebrate the purchase of their first home. For me it was a bittersweet time. I cried, wet, salty tears. I'll never forget Lowell's response. He put his hand across the table and gently took up my shaky hand. He looked me in the eyes and said what I longed to hear. This doesn't mean anything. We are not stuck here. If Jesus calls us to Mongolia tomorrow we'll sell the house. This is not a big deal. There was such reassurance in those words. I felt such relief.
You are not trapped. You are not stuck. I think the enemy of our souls piggybacks on this issue for the Adult TCK. He wants you to think you are stuck. He wants you to feel that a life in your passport country is a purposeless life. Whatever he can do to undermine your sense of worth and calling and purpose He will do. He comes to steal and kill and destroy. Jesus comes to give us life abundant-"a rich and satisfying life!" (John 10:10)
Returning from Thailand in January was difficult at first. But then out of the blue I started reading a book about prayer. It struck me that our purpose is sure in Christ. We are here for the Kingdom of God. We are here for His Glory. We are here to make Jesus famous. Those things have not changed-no matter where we live. But our enemy likes to erode our sense of who we are. He likes to confuse. He steals our purpose. He makes us feel like we have nothing to offer, that we are meant to live somewhere else. It's the same argument he used in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. The enemy tries to tell us that God is cheating us, that God knows we thrive somewhere else but he's stuck us here forever to rot away.
It's changed the way I'm praying. I'm now asking God to protect my sense of purpose. I'm asking him to give me a divine satisfaction with the space he has for me. I'm asking for contentment and joy. And then I'm asking for protection over that satisfaction, over that contentment, over that sense of purpose. Understanding my sense of purpose as something the enemy is opposed to is a new thought for me but I'm trying this out and seeing Jesus victorious in it. To be honest, and this is surprising me even as I write it, I haven't thought much about my purpose for the last couple of months since I started to pray that way. I think Jesus really is protecting that....declaring it off limits to the enemy of my soul who has tortured me there for so very many years.
Resist the guilt my friend. You wrote, " I feel a level of guilt for not allowing Jesus to be my stability and the center of my affection and the source of my contentment." What might feel like guilt is really an invitation. Jesus is inviting you into deeper places of stability and affection and contentment. He longs for you to find those things in him...
We are so in this together. I wish I could tell you that these things go away. I'm afraid this is your opportunity to find Jesus faithful for many years to come. This is your place of need. This is your thorn in the flesh. But I can also say with great rigor that Jesus WILL BE faithful at every turn. I've battled these things over and over again. I can see how Jesus has used this in my story to push me deeper into Who He Is! My faith has grown. I've learned that in this suffering He has been kind to me.
