… the amount of time I have spent in Uganda. 3 months from 18 months. To be honest, it’s gone slowly! 3 months ago seems a LIFETIME ago, and the initial rabbit-in-headlights feeling of moving here has passed. Having said that, everything British is still vividly etched on my mind, and seems much more like home than Kampala. Maybe when it’s 5 from 6, the balance will have shifted.
For all the post-weekend blues of a Monday, it does tend to go quickly and it’s pleasant to pick up where the previous Friday left off. Emails, to do lists, plotting the week. Especially good this week since tomorrow is a public holiday (we think… these things are left to the last minute) and so Monday is immediately followed by another 'Saturday', hoorah.
John Piper has challenged me with more musings on life... seriously, get involved, if you are inspired through the mind, www.desiringgod.org and check out the epic (free, downloadable) sermon library. ANYWAY, his recent offering from 1 Peter boldly declared that 'the world is passionately committed to the utterly inconsequential'.
Whack. Bam. Lie there for a few minutes. He continues: 'if image is nothing and substance is everything, how much work is there for us to do before we become something'. Wow. Passionately committed to the utterly inconsequential? Yep, that's me. Substance is everything? Like, really everything? So, my body really means nothing to God? Then why do I spend so long thinking about it!
Whack. Bam. Lie there for a few minutes. He continues: 'if image is nothing and substance is everything, how much work is there for us to do before we become something'. Wow. Passionately committed to the utterly inconsequential? Yep, that's me. Substance is everything? Like, really everything? So, my body really means nothing to God? Then why do I spend so long thinking about it!
It's what every girl needs to hear - for sure, people care about the physical here and now but it is UTTERLY INCONSEQUENTIAL. That's kinda freeing. And I feel like about 90% of my brain has just been released to think about other stuff.
I found a really satisfying way of reading the Gospel of Mark yesterday - I copied and pasted chapter 1 from biblegateway into Word and then found pictures online of all the places and references made in the passage. It was awesome. And, just for the record, leprosy is totally gross, and I realise now that a lot of the crippled people I see here in Kampala have it. It made Jesus real... baptised in the River Jordan... walking along the beach...
Christmas creeps closer, and yet it's signs are few and hidden here. There are no fir trees in sight, you have to keep an eye out for decorations in the shops, and the heat belies the time of year which should be chilly and snowing. Gifts are hardly mentioned, and I'm actually glad, because the festive season being less of a big deal here will help the fact that I'm not in the thick of it at home. Enjoying the best meal of the year, pulling crackers, crying through Hark the Herald, going for a walk along the beach before presents, and laughing hysterically through the unwrapping of generous gifts from certain relatives. Sigh.
And so, to pinch Oasis' brand new slogan, I challenge you as I challenge myself: take and make opportunities... TODAY.
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