The reason I believe this happens is because of how much effort it takes here and how intentional one has to be in their spiritual discipline.
Korea is a very social environment, and there is very rare moments in life these days where I find myself alone, much less alone with God. When these brief moments do crop up, I usually find myself checking my Facebook page, getting caught up on e-mails, or sitting here typing a blog just like I'm doing right at this very moment.
In America, a spiritual life and faith-based discipline is difficult, no question, but here in Korea the training wheels come off very quickly. Because there are only a handful of English-speaking church services in the entire province of Daegu, the church selection is very limited. Unlike in America, we don't get the luxury to analyze whether or not we enjoy or relate to the sermons being preached, we can't much criticize the worship style or format we encounter. Our brothers and sisters in faith whom we come across in the church won't all rub us the right way, and we don't have the ability to isolate ourselves from them or pick and choose who we associate with and worship alongside and still expect to have any type of Christian community left.
And as depressing as everything above sounds, I love it! It's not easy right now, and I'm definitely not happy with how my faith has sort of been on "sleep mode" since I got here a month ago. However, the opportunity to grow seems so much more available in the midst of this hardship, and the beauty of diversity and the complexity of fitting into the church body reminds me much of how the Bible depicts the early church being. It wasn't a bunch of people who all thought the same way, had similar personalities, liked the same things, had the same color skin, spoke the same language, and had the same style of worship or understanding of God. The reality is, they had to make it work. They had to try that much harder. They had to discipline themselves that much more maticulously to be both in community and alone with God. I've never had more respect for the early church than I do at this moment, and I'm saying this as I try to lift my heavy leg back up onto the stirrup. I'm not even back on the horse yet. :)
There is such a beauty to behold in the idea that being the church has to be intentional, being alone with God and in the Word is a real-life discipline, and making the effort to grow spiritually could never be more challenging and self-sacrificing. There's a comfort in knowing that church (much like life) is tough, that Rob Bell and Francis Chan (and all the amazing spiritual voices in America and other Western cultures) aren't here constantly babysitting my infant faith. I'm excited to start the growing pains.
One of the best pasta dishes I've EVER had!! Thank you, Alban!!
On a much lighter and completely separate note, this week Sarah and I had the most INCREDIBLE Italian food I've ever had at place by Duryu Park called Alban. I'm not even exaggerating. I had this diced chicken pasta with spicey marinara sauce and sweet garlic bread (YES, SWEET GARLIC BREAD!!!). I want to apologize to all of my Italian peeps, but Koreans cook one of the meanest and most delicious dishes of pasta I've ever had. My good friend Drew corrected me though in that my wife's chicken pesto pasta is actually the best Italian dish out there, and I humbly stand corrected- Lebanese people cook the meanest and most delicious pasta on the planet!! Thank you, Sarah!
maybe we should ALL test our faith in a distant land, huh??
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