Learning.

This is my final blog post from my journey to Northern Ireland. I’ve just cleared US Immigration on the Irish side of the Atlantic. I caught a lift to the airport with a great friend and enjoyed the two hours to chat along the way. It is rewarding to have developed so many friendships over here. When I suggested I would take a bus to Dublin, the response was, “I wouldn’t hear of it…”

How can I process what I’ve experienced over the last two weeks or so? I came into it knowing a bit about my gifting and strengths but was assured by a couple of godly friends I was coming here to learn. So what did I learn? And what am I learning?

I was allowed to live into my gifting here. A gifting which is varied and diverse. I’d describe it as “good at many things, great at none of them.” Teaching, helping people who teach, caring and pastoring, leading worship, worshiping, cleaning dishes, vacuuming floors, making my bed daily. But gifting is one thing. Calling is another.

I also felt I lived into my calling, which is to encourage people in ministry through conversation, prayer, paying attention to what God is doing in our lives, talking about what God might be doing next, and more prayer. As I lived into this gifting, I believe some people received new, encouraging direction from God. Others seemed more closed off, but I am confident God spoke some things to them nonetheless. And if God spoke, it will continue to resonate. I’m thankful the pressure is not on me to make things happen. Just to facilitate the process of paying attention to what God is doing. It’s all about Him.

Still I skirt the issue of what I’ve learned. Perhaps I’ll get around to it. Perhaps I don’t know yet. I learned, deeper than ever before, that Northern Ireland is a place filled with human beings doing everyday life in a place which, while foreign to me, is less and less mystical, more and more normal. I learned sometimes God takes us around the world to connect with someone we might not have at home. Even though they’re from a place not far from my home. Sometimes even from my hometown. I learned not everyone believes the same way. I knew this already. But it was supplemented by the fact the Bible isn’t interpreted in the same ways. And the way we interpret it comes out in what we do, how we speak, how we express or withhold love. I learned controlling tendencies are a cancer. I learned anew that God gives favor and, without it, we cannot bear abundant fruit.

Those are just a few things. Most of you who are reading this will be people who get to be in on the overflow of processing these things in the coming weeks. And for that I’m thankful. Thank you for your love and prayers. May the Lord bless you all.