Little You And I-Jason Mraz

I just wanted to mention a few things that have been on my mind over the past few days here. Nothing exactly schedule/agenda related, but rather some random thoughts from South Africa:

Firstly, I am constantly aware of how many people around me are speaking different languages. To be fair, I don’t know if they are all speaking the same language or not (I think it is 3 different languages, but thats really a guess) but at the very least they are speaking a different language than mine. This isn’t totally uncommon in the US; you can run into Spanish-speakers, Hindi-speakers, Chinese-speakers, etc. at home. However, many Americans tend to be rather offended or uncomfortable when this happens… they don’t like the fact that they don’t know what the people around them are saying, and I have heard plenty of times that if ‘those people’ want to live in the US, they should learn English. While I am obviously in a different context in South Africa, the point that stands out to me is that the people speaking different languages here DO know English. It is the language of instruction at Rhodes, and as students here they are required to be fluent in English, yet chose to speak another language when out of the classroom. It seems perfectly normal that they should speak whichever language they want, and I just wonder what this implies about the general discomfort at home with non-English speakers.

Another thought… I keep running into a cat on campus!  She is a calico, and I only see her at night, hanging out around the main part of campus. I don’t really go out at night much, but the three times I went to the library after dark I saw her in the courtyard, and I saw her once during orientation week when I was coming back from a computer lab. She is very obviously a domestic cat; she has a collar with a bell, and when I petted her last night, I saw that she has Phoebe written on her collar. I only hope that she chooses to be out at night, and isn’t a homeless kitty (I wont even use the word stray, because she is so tame that she will follow me after I pet her… clearly, she is a people cat). Anyway, this is a picture I took of Phoebe last week, I am sure you are all very excited.

I often find myself discouraged by my sin. Wouldn’t it be nice if when you went to a new continent you were suddenly perfect, or at least better? Instead, I find myself with the same struggles as before, except that now I don’t have people to alternately chastise or encourage me when necessary. Luckily, the psalm countdown I am doing has me to the 70s and 80s, which frequently seem to have themes of God persevering with his people when they disbelieve, rebel, reject him, forget him, or find some other way to sin. I just wanted to share a bit of my experience with Psalm 86, which has been really helpful in the last week or so. I went to do my psalm reading right before bed, as I had (again) managed to fill my day with seemingly important things that I can’t even remember doing anymore. The psalm opens with “Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am devoted to you.” I had to stop reading at that point, because it seemed so hypocritical to take this as my own prayer when the truth was that I wasn’t feeling particularly devoted.

After a minute, I just really felt drawn to repentance for the condition of my heart, and the way that I try to build my life on other things in a search for happiness, when real joy is within my reach. Anyway, I had some time of heartfelt conversation with God, and returned to Psalm 86, and guess what I found?

“Bring joy to your servant,

for to you, O Lord,

I lift up my soul.

You are forgiving and good, O Lord,

abounding in love to all who call to you.

Hear my prayer, O Lord,

Listen to my cry for mercy.” (86:4-6)

“Teach me your way, O Lord,

and I will walk in your truth;

give me an undivided heart,

that I may fear your name.

I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;

I will glorify your name forever.

For great is your love toward me;

you have delivered me from the

depths of the grave.” (86:11-13)

I have been so encouraged by the way that God speaks to me even when I am so distracted by myself that I forget that I need to listen for Him. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that we have a pretty amazing God.

In other news, there are doves here that sound like owls. I have been meaning to mention that basically since I got to campus, because they are everywhere and it was driving me crazy until someone told me that it was doves making all that noise. They call all day long, and it obviously couldn’t be coming from owls, because of the whole nocturnal thing. I feel much better now that I can locate the source, although it hasn’t made it any quieter! The birds here are actually quite loud, between the doves and what appear to be crows (they are super loud as well) and some songbirds (they have a more normal volume). I must admit that I am not a big bird watcher, and I haven’t taken any pictures of the birds here… they look just like any other birds, only louder.

**I apologize if the subject changes were confusing today... I know that my train of thought sometimes seems haphazard :) It isn't, in case you were wondering, but if I were to spell it out, these posts would be even more ridiculously long than they already are.