Slow down and sit for a while...

Life is busy here.

It's been a gradual increase since I've gotten back into life in America. But its felt like this week it has just come at me full speed. Work, school, visiting friends, cleaning around the house...it's just draining. And its not that I don't like those things- ok so maybe not the Chemistry class part- but it all just seems to be on turbo speed. Things go by schedule and appointment. Work is 9-3. Class starts at 8. I have lunch with someone at 12:45...

I miss the life of going minute by minute without busy schedules and time limits. I miss the African days when I could have a conversation with someone without having to worry about being late for something else....I miss walks to pick avocados, chats while sitting in the kitchen, quiet times sitting outside, I even miss two hour long dinner preparations of talking and fellowshipping.

I miss a culture that values community.

America is fast- fast food, high-speed internet, on-demand television....and so on....

Why have we come to value efficiency more than relationships? I feel like this is a broken record of what so many people have said before...but things just keep on becoming faster and faster...

I was at the grocery store today- being overwhelmed and over stimulated- and I realized something at the deli counter. While I was waiting for my turn, the lady before me placed her order. She placed her order directly after the "hello" that the man behind the counter gave. And I thought to myself that I don't know if that man would know what to do if instead of going directly to my need, I replied to him by saying "Hello. How are you?" So I told myself that I would make it a point to break the mold. And then after waiting five minutes, my turn came, I had already forgotten my resolution and after the quick polite "hello" I went straight to placing my order.

I am being sucked back in. And I hate it.

I am praying for my values to continually be replaced with God and His Kingdom values. It's not about one culture that has it right versus another. It's about the fact that we are all screwed up and we need to ask God to show us how to bring His Kingdom culture to this earth- where people will ask how the other is doing before ordering lunch meat for their families.