Adjusting...

This post has been simmering in my mind for a good week now.  All the new sights, tastes, and smells caught me off guard quite a bit.  I guess they call it culture "shock" for a reason!  As I stood in my hotel room  the second or third day we were here, looking down on the bustling life below, so different to what I'm used to, I started to think...  It was starting to set in, how out of place I felt, and so alone.  My mind started to give in to the thoughts, you know, the dangerous ones:  "I don't belong here", "This land is weird with many odd ways of doing things",  "I don't think I can survive living here!"  "I'm not like them, and I don't like the way they live", etc... I started to try and convince myself of the importance of learning some of the language, the customs, and yes, even learning to enjoy the strange smelling food... All of a sudden a sense of despair overcame me.  How could I do that?  How could I adjust enough to come along side these "strange" people?  How could I eat their food, learn their language, live along side them in conditions that made me pull back in disgust?  (I'm being honest here, I'm not proud of my lack of empathy...)  A new wave of feeling came over me - guilt.  How could I be so spoiled, so cold towards these people who have a fraction of what you have been blessed with?  How can you stand yourself, gagging at the smell of the only meal that person might be able to afford all day?  Shame.  And so the roller coaster continued for a few days - feeling alone, repulsed by offending smells and tastes and strange behavior, feeling despair at how to adjust, how to live along side them, and then guilt for having such a struggle.  Then, it happened.  Not as a Paul-on-the-road-to-Damascus moment, but as a slow churning in my mind and spirit - God seemed to impress on me something amazing.  Jesus - He came to earth - to a "strange" new place.  He tells us that "our ways are not His ways, nor our thoughts His thoughts".  He didn't come and live in the wealthiest mansion available, or eat only the food he liked...  No, He came to serve, not to be served, He came and humbled himself, being found as a man - a human, dirty, "strange" human being!  He BECAME one of us, to give up His rights and privileges all to show us the way to relationship with the Father. Wow.  Am I still struggling with adjusting? - oh YES!  But, do I have a whole deeper sense of thankfulness to Jesus for what He did for me? - oh YES!  What an amazing lesson of love and sacrifice!  May I keep Jesus' sacrifice in mind next time I am given the opportunity to show love to these people, as much as I am able!