Build houses and settle down

I was just looking over my blog and realized how long it has been since I have recorded anything of personal substance. To be perfectly honest, its been hard to find words to put here - so much is happening, at the same time as absolutely nothing.

What I mean by that is, my life in China is exactly that - a life in China. This place is my home, and I exist in a comfortable routine. Aside from the occasional weekend getaway, each new week has looked exactly like the one before it, and I anticipate the next to be strikingly similar. I teach class Monday-Thursday, have weekly dates for Mahjong and my book club, Tuesday night is date night with Trent, and Sunday is family day. I grocery shop and have bills. My point here is not that my life bears an uncanny resemblance to that of a retiree, but that it is normal. I realize it has become hard to blog because in my mind, the usual Wednesday morning of running, study and crunchy rice is nothing of interest. I live here.

Its ironic. From the beginning, when I made my decision to come to China, this place was presented as a temporary home. Much like a new university to attend, or a summer internship, it was a place to be for a while...nothing of permanence. I was told I didn't have to learn Chinese and I could make the decision to renew my contract on a year-to-year basis; basically, that I could do HIS work in China as long as it suited me. I didn't bring many great comforts from home across the ocean, because I knew I would be returning to them shortly. No change of address forms were filled.

I'm reminded of a lesson from Jeremiah that Megan shared with me a while back, 19:5-7
"Build houses and settle down: plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there, do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

How confusing it must have been for the Israelites to invest their work, livelihood and children in a temporary home. (In exile, even!) It would seem that their original intention was to wait out God's timing in a state of transition. But HIS intention for us seems to be different...almost like an investment in our emotional health. Not just to be in a place for a time, but to live completely where you are, in the place HE has made for you to thrive. To give it your heart, to do HIS work in that place, and to allow some semblance of a life grow, even if just for a moment.

...And then to be prepared to say goodbye. I believe the phrase is, "This world is not my home". The same willingness which I have to say "see ya lata" to this world, is the same faith I have to have to go to the next place HE is taking me. I laid down my roots. I built a house and settled in Shiyan. I have a fruit lady. Honestly, its breaking my heart. As I told Angelyn the other day, "Maybe I'm not doing as well with the whole moving thing as I thought."

I have memories of Carol dropping by on a random Wednesday evening, Florance giggling at my front door, and Juice Lady asking me for the upteenth time if I have had dinner yet. This place is treasured, from my bright yellow-walled bedroom, to my roach-infested bathroom with the China smell, and the delicious smelling tree out my frosted window. But I am assured that it is time to move on, that HE is calling me to the next chapter, asking me the leave the house I've built and go in search of a new home. I feel blessed in so many ways, the greatest being that I have a person to be at home with, anywhere. I've got options, and a conviction that HIS work is to be done in the midst of any of them.