Responsibility and Trust

  According to the StrengsQuest quiz, responsibility is my top strength.  This makes sense, since I am an oldest child.  I consider my self a responsible person and take jobs and duties seriously.  I also am quick to blame myself when things go wrong.  Deep down, I may know it was directly someone else's fault, but I'm quick to apologize because I can see how I could have prevented the problem.  
  In the situations with which I am involved, I like to be in charge.  "Being in charge" brings high levels of control and responsibility, which is good.  I don't like getting involved with things that are going to tie my hands and leave me at the mercy of someone else.   


   About now, you're probably thinking: Will, I really don't care about your thought processes or that you're a control freak.  Get the point! 
  
   The point is this: Because I like to be in charge, I find it difficult, sometimes, to trust God.  I feel uncomfortable with situations that I can't control.  I mean it sounds great to say, "Well, I'm just trusting the Lord on this one..."  But in the end, I feel so irresponsible and immature.  I think, I'm an adult and can take care of myself!  What am I doing?  The reason for this is that I don't want to give up "being in charge."   Not being in control means that I am left with nothing.  The only thing to cling to is Christ.  There's no "standing alone because I can"  because, quite frankly, I can't.  


   Recently, I have been finding myself in more and more situations where unhindered faith and trust in God is absolutely necessary.  In those situations, I tend to realize that trusting God is actually the most mature and responsible decision possible. 

¿Todo Tranquilo?

 The title is a a very typical greeting here in Argentina.  It literally means "Is everything tranquil?"  The normal response is "yes," mostly because it's a greeting.  
  This question caught my attention the other day.  I don't think that in the States this greeting would really work.  Partially because no one says "tranquil," but also because the stateside culture doesn't revolve around "taking it easy" as much as it does here in Latin America.  I have heard some people say in the English: "things are pretty chill," but that's not often the case. 
  I am a person who generally appreciates punctuality.  When it depends on me, I arrive on time.  This often means sacrifices on my part because I enjoy taking my time with things like getting up the morning.  This has caused for frustration in my life (both in Argentina and Mexico) because the general public doest not share this same value.  The sweet time is taken without the sacrifice of something else.  
  As a result, the pace of life here is slower.  And I am not complaining about that.  In fact, stress about times and deadlines goes away.
  I used the words "frustration" and "stress" on purpose.  When the time crunch factor is taken out of the equation of life, it's much easier to answer "yes" when someone asks you if everything is tranquil. 
  

There Are Things that You Can't Learn at a Christian College

  It's very difficult to teach something that you don't believe.  I have had very little contact with the modernism and postmodernism points of view in my life.  The only time I can really say that they were explained to me well was in church a while back from a seminary student who quickly explained them and why they were wrong.  Especially in Christian settings, it's really hard to teach stuff like that because it just doesn't match our worldview.  
  My communication class here is all about globalization, postmodernism, individualization, fragmentation, and stuff like that.  We're learning about how the world is changing, become more alike, yet also breaking apart.  Coming together, but becoming more individual.  It's really, really difficult to teach that without a postmodern worldview.  The idea that everyone has their own truth, and the idea of absolute, objective truth is non-existent.  
  One of the books that we are reading is called Liquid Modernity.  It's the idea that everything is ever-changing, and there are no constants.  To sum it all up, the world is moving and morphing at a spectacular pace.  The voice of mass media reaches every corner of the planet, broadcasting every imaginable idea or belief. 


   So where am I going with this?  The last few weeks in church Pastor Dan has been speaking about trusting God in change.  An accident?  Doubt it.  His first point on Sunday was "In the midst of change, trust the things that never change." Talking about God and His Word. 
   Mix that into a postmodern world and what do you get?  A swirling hurricane of information, beliefs, viewpoints, and news with one thing standing undaunted: The Word of God.  

^{Isaiah 40:8} The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever

Perception of sin

  As I get older, I come in contact with more and more sin.  It just happens, I don't look for it, but it's everywhere.  The other day, I noticed that I was becoming a little desensitized to certain things.  For example, I've gotten passed the point where my ears bleed when I hear certain phrases (and stuff like that.)  

   I began to compare that to God.  I realized that on that plane, God and I are vastly different.  God doesn't get desensitized to sin.  His holiness doesn't tolerate any kind of wickedness.  So I began to think, where does that leave me? 

   I'm not going to say that I have an answer.  But think about the sin that doesn't bother you to see anymore.  Think about how God looks at that sin.

  

Does your attitude change? 

Salt

The other day, we had company, and my "brother" bought bread from the grocery store around the corner.   When I tasted the bread,  I knew something was askew.  This bread looked completely normal.  It had all the indications of regular, tasty bread.  But, all of my expectations were shattered when it entered my mouth.   The bread was bland, flavorless.  My first conclusion was "This bread doesn't have any salt in it."  My "mom" later confirmed my sneaking suspicion.   
  The next day, I ate some regular bread, and some of the saltless bread just because.  The difference was impressive.  The saltless bread made me want to spit and the wash my mouth out with soap.  
  I made a comment to my "mom" about the difference, and she said that that is why as Christians, we are the salt of the earth.  I was kinda impacted by that.  I mean, the earth is gonna taste like that nasty bread if we don't do our job?  Yikes!  
  I began to think about the importance of salt in food.  It's an absolute necessity.  Cooking isn't really cooking without salt.  

  So here's my question:  Are you being salt in your saltless world? Are the places that you frequent impacted positively by your presence? 

 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

Matthew 5:13

Hidden Deep Down

  Living in Argentina requires my speaking Spanish. That's a given.  Being out of Mexico for several years has caused my Spanish to corrode.  So, I have relearned  simple words and phrases that belong to the Spanish language.  At the same time, I am learning a lot of expressions and idioms that are specific to Argentina (or just Buenos Aires).
  As my sister noticed the other day, my accent and pronunciation has changed after being here for three months.  Not that people don't still call me "Mexicanote" (big Mexican), which I don't mind.  But, lots of my slang I use is Argentine because that's what I hear everyday. 
  The interesting phenomenon that I have observed, is that I still have words coming out of hibernation.  Suddenly, a certain situation requires a specific word that I haven't said or thought of for years, and it comes out of my mouth.  I smile with contentment because I knew that word, but the Argentines giggle.  Suddenly, I break into a cold sweat, I was sure that I used that correctly.  Oh boy, I just said something bad.  So I ask, "Is that not right?"  The giggler often responds with, "Well, we don't say that here, but instead we say-" 
  So, I learn the Argentine expression, and try not to forget the Mexican one. But that makes me wonder, how much Spanish do I have stored in my brain that I have yet to rediscover? I mean, it's not that my Spanish was better before.  I speak Spanish more fluently now than I ever did in Mexico, but certain terms I haven't needed here yet. 
  This, in turn, causes me to ask. What else do I have hidden in my mind that just hasn't wanted to resurface?   Memories, ideas, feelings.  The possibilities are close to endless. What could be done with all of that information?  I'm sure a lot of it is useless, but it may be meaningful, may be hurtful, may be helpful. 
I think that I'm going to try to record more of my life, thoughts, and ideas so that I can look back. I'm not saying that it's healthy to dwell in the past.  But, 

Don't forget to remember. 

Borges y Yo

  I've talked about Jose Luis Borges a little bit, but now, I'm going to go into a little more detail.  Borges was born in Buenos Aires in 1899, but because of his father's health problems, he grew up in Switzerland (1904-21).  When he returned to Buenos Aires, he fell in love with the city, and he wrote a great deal about it; these writing are among the ones that made him famous.
   Certain things are always present in my mind, simply because of who I am.  I saw that Borges grew up in a country that was not where his parents were from, and immediately, I attributed his success as one of the greatest Latin American authors of all to time to his TCKness (Third Culture Kid)ness.
  When Borges returned to Buenos Aires, he realized that this was indeed where he belonged. He wrote that the time in Europe was non-existent; Argentina was all that mattered.  (Granted, that thought pattern isn't exactly typical for TCKs, but bear with me).  Because he hadn't grown up here, he could describe the city in ways that a native couldn't.  Because it was new for him, his perspective was vastly different.
   In other ways, he shows very strong TCK trends.  He thought that traditions were stupid.  Some Argentines accused him of being anti-patriotic because of this.  But, he didn't see the point of traditions and rituals.  His philosophy was to take the useful part of a tradition and leave the rest alone.  This carried over to his religious views as he saw the emptiness in the traditionalism of the Abrahamic religions.  Apparently, he showed interest in Buddhism because the ability to "pick and choose."  I thought that was really interesting.  "Picking and choosing" seems to be a TCK thing.  Because they have seen a lot of things (cultures, traditions, etc), a mix is the most natural result.
  Needless to say, I have become much more interested in Borges and his life, now that I know that he was a TCK.

Note on the title: Borges wrote a small work called Borges y Yo (Borges and I).  He talks about his seemly split personality. The public figure and the simple man.  I kinda played with that as Borges and I (Will).