The other night I was considering the struggle and embarrassments of adapting to a new country, new culture, new normals, new struggles, and new language. In that rare moment of clarity I realized that I was pronouncing my perception of the struggle incorrectly. I should be pronouncing the word, not “humiliating,” but “humility-aiding.”
I just need to drop the accent on my pride.
A challenging thought from The Valley of Vision:
Let me not be at my own disposal,
But rejoice that I am under the care of one who is too wise to err,
Too kind to injure,
Too tender to crush.
May I scandalize none by my temper and conduct,
But recommend and endear Christ to all around,
Bestow good on every one as circumstances permit,
And decline no opportunity of usefulness.
Valley of vision, 43
Paul said it in this way,
”For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8-10).
Botillo
When you move to a new place and want to try out their specialized cuisine, you can’t be picky.
Here in our valley, El Bierzo, a famous meal is Botillo. It is meat-stuffed pork intestines. “What meat is stuffed in there?” you may ask. That, my friend, is a good question. But as a connoisseur of hotdogs, I don’t worry about it too much.
I do know that something this good isn’t just whipped up in an afternoon. The process to make botillo is at least five days.
We are so proud of it here that one nearby village has a large statute in commemoration.
In trying to teach our daughter that giving is better than receiving, Crystal and Tanzen baked cookies and delivered them to our new friends around town. I think they appreciated them…
According to our Spanish tutor, the statement, “If you say that again I am going to wash your mouth out with soap!” doesn’t have an equivalent Spanish phrase.
The children here in Spain will never understand a memorable part of my childhood.
Last week we celebrated Tanzen’s birthday with our Ponferrada friends. We had a great time (even if Jon got extra help on “Pin the Nose on Olaf”)!
If what you are believing increases your self-image, it isn’t the gospel.
>According to Scripture, God deliberately designed the gospel in such a way so as to strip me of pride and leave me without any grounds for boasting in myself whatsoever (Eph 2; 1 Cor 1). This is actually a wonderful mercy from God, for pride is at the root of all my sin. Pride produced the first sin in the Garden (Gen 3), and pride always precedes every sinful stumbling in my life (Prov 16:18). Therefore, if I am to experience deliverance from sin, I must be delivered from the pride that produces it. Thankfully, the gospel is engineered to accomplish this deliverance.
Milton Vincent, Gospel Primer, 27
Verse links to @biblegateway
Graffiti
Spain has impressive artists in its history. Individuals such as Picasso, Goya, and El Greco have invested incredible effort in speaking through art.
But there are other artists whose work is seen without buying a museum pass. Spain is full of graffiti. It can be much more than a four letter word scrawled on a boxcar. Much of it makes you scratch your head and ask, “Why would you spray paint over something with so much history?” Others make you think, “Wow!”
There are even some celebrity artists whose names appear on buildings and bridges for hundreds of kilometers around Madrid. The amount of effort put into scrawling their name on an underpass is impressive, albeit confusing. *How much time and money did you put into this?*
Some businesses have chose to hire a graffiti artist to paint their building, probably to keep other graffiti off of it (I guess graffitiing a graffiti is bad mojo?!?).
So I ask a question, “Is graffiti art?” Can it be art if it is destroying personal or public property? Is it art if it is commissioned? Is it only art if it is beautiful, or realistic, or grand?
And if it is art, what truth is it fit to communicate?
And if it communicates that message well, is there a way to appreciate the work and the message?
The other night we were in the food court of a mall and I was talking to a friend. I was trying to say, “I have a question for you about quantum mechanics.” So I said, “tengo una pregunta sobre quantum mecánico.” But what he heard was “tengo una pregunta sobre cuánto me quieres” (I have a question about how much you love me).
Those are a little different…
Caïn by Henri Vidal