Living

My Friends,
I've returned to America today. Descending into Atlanta seemed so familiar since I've done it a dozen times...but viewing the expanse of this country was almost unbelievable! I anticipate that soon I'll be making some adjustments to enter life in this world. (Right now though I'm still living on Singapore time and hence posting this at 3am in the morning!). I'm thankful to have gone, and thankful to be back. I pray now that the things I've seen and known in SE Asia will be a part of me here, that I will learn to live and love more fully than before. THANK YOU for journeying with me and making it possible for me to have gone and grown.

I was looking over some of my earlier posts and through some of my journals from the past 12 months. The strong theme on my heart has been and is that of Hope. So, in concluding this blog I want to speak of hope, to remind myself of truth. I've seen new dimensions to life this year, and I've learned more of what's reality in my own life - the dirt and grief, the grace and joy, the life intended for glory. I want to continue to become more aware of reality in life as we experience it. For what purpose? To live with purpose here and now, to experience reality as it was meant to be, even as it can be because the Father has made a way. We who are kept by God, forgiven and walking in faith, though we wander and struggle, we possess a real hope, that we are going somewhere, to be with Someone. This hope is beyond the physical. It overcomes this world. It compels and draws to the words of life and to works of love. It's rooted in the very Spirit of the True God, His Presence come close. The grace that undergirds it is for those who want healing and find it in the Savior of the World, without respect to nation or station...it's for Americans as well as SE Asians, for the physically oppressed as well as the spiritually dry. It's the thing everyone's craving. It's ONLY true in and through the Risen Christ, the provision of the Father.

Living hope is necessity for the believer. My prayer for us is that we really soak up the truth of who we are in Christ, the Vine, the Living Hope. I look to the day when our worship will transform tribes and tongues, when the world will live Hope until the Day comes when faith will turn to sight and Hope to Presence.

-Asha


"Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." -Hebrews 10:22

We are born to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, to an indestructible inheritance. God is guarding this salvation and will reveal it soon. Know, See, Enjoy. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and experience joy that you can't even express! Pass it on. - 1 Peter 1

Heading Home

I'm about to board the plane...goodbye SE Asia. Tough to say goodbye to life here, varied as it has been. Thankful that the Lord never leaves this place. Thinking about contentment in all stations, even in plenty and lack. Wondering what emotions will soon race in my heart...what thoughts? First, dinner. We're heading out the door now. Will write soon, after a 25 hour transit (Singapore-Seoul-Atlanta).

-Asha

Chaingmai...2007

A day in Chaingmai can bring a lot of things...so I'm learning. This little girl is sitting outside the temple on top the mountain, chanting and wearing her tribal costume.

The people still come to the temple, hoping for something promising...expecting luck to carry them through the next year. They walk around the gold-painted square center of the temple in reverence to the unknown, deferring to those who have gone before.

And sitting in a park drinking carrot juice can invite a conversation with local monks from the Chiangmai Buddhist Univserity...what is their hope? I asked them. We talked, we shared, we compared. I want them to understand joy and purpose beyond becoming extinct, non-existent, escaping. We have more than that in store for the future! The alternative is no bliss. Reality is sobering. Grace is enlivening.