Man, I need to write. I haven’t written in awhile. What should I write about? Life in Okinawa? How it has been cloudy or rainy with the chance of typhoon for over two weeks? Or how this morning on my run with Annabelle, everyone who was walking a dog decided not to pick up their steaming piles forcing us to maneuver in and out of the squished trail? How the Ferris Wheel is no longer economical so we will never have a chance to ride it? I did discover that Japanese people are not likely to have people over to their homes as the homes are so small that one room serves as a dinning area, living area, and bedroom. Their rooms are veritable shelter transformers! Because of this, they go out to restaurants and cafes to meet friends and family. No wonder why there are so many restaurants and park benches.
Maybe I should write about Annabelle…about how her legs no longer shake when she pulls herself up. Or maybe how she giggles endlessly when she is tossed on the wall of pillows layered on our bed. I could say that she drinks from a sippy cup and eats the same food we eat, but that’s kind of boring. Maybe they would like to know how she laughs out loud and slaps her hand on the table or her knee just like we do? Or how I can hear her pound the floor with her hands and knees as she quickly crawls to where I just laid down to pull up my shirt in order to give me a loud zerbert on my belly. Much to our chagrin, she hasn’t quite figured out that she can’t do that in public. She does know how to babble incessantly and sign for “more”, “food”, “all done”, and “cup”. But Im not sure if people would be interested in all of that either.
I hate writers block. Maybe my friends and family would like to know that Barrett is still loving his job as a chaplain, meeting the Marines where they are at and having some of them over for dinner and lunch to get to know them. He finds sharing the gospel a privilege and still is in awe that he gets paid to do it. He not only loves meeting with his guys and officers, he enjoys coming home to throw Annabelle up in the air, play with her on the floor, and going on family bike rides. He has even managed to snorkel once or twice between playing on his ipad or computer.
I feel like our life is boringly normal with sporadic moments of excitement. But maybe I have that wrong. As I read and hear about counseling cases and other life stories, I realize that being boringly normal may actually be a blessing. We don’t have to “build a testimony” in order to minister to others. We don’t have to overcome great obstacles to prove our trust in the Lord. We don’t have to live a Disneyworld daily life in order to excite others to Christ. Our life journey should be one of daily faithfulness in glorifying the Lord in all we do…yes, in the big things…but more importantly, in the seemingly small mundane things as that is what the Lord desires. To love God and love our neighbor.