Life after Korea

We have always been big pop corn eaters...it is a Meyerdierk family trait...even our dog likes popcorn.  But since coming home from Korea, the kids insist on eating it with chopsticks.  I find this a little humorous :-).

MJ and I were at the store last week and needing to pick up a pizza we noticed one that was topped strangely.  I was going to pass it up and grab a tried-and-true variety when MJ said "let's try it...we're adventuresome now that we've gone to Korea."  We bought that one and everyone loved it.

It seems like all our names have changed at home...the girls, in particular, have been looking up the Korean terms for sister, mom, dad, etc and using them.  So if you come visit, be forewarned...you may come with one name and leave with another. 

Two weeks in Korea was a dream come true; a precious gift from God to us.  It has left its mark in our lives and continues to work its ripple effects into us in ways we are all still processing (on a little deeper, more profound level than how we eat our popcorn). 

For one example, this became our "theme song" while we were there (Mike and I were known to embarrass our children as we broke out into singing this on occassion, in public...we hope that secretly, behind their blushing cheeks, they were singing along):
 
Steven Curtis Chapman - The Great Adventure by StevenCurtisChapman-Official

We were on an adventure, but for us, it was more than a vacation/adventure...it was self-consciously an adventure in following our Father into the glorious unknown. He is our Father who has set us free from the prison of our sins, and who is taking us on a lifelong adventure of trusting His grace-laden direction of our lives. And though He is always the One in control, there we sensed it in such a heightened way as we were stripped of much of the illusion we ordinarily have of ourselves being in control.  Everything felt unknown, unfamiliar...and He was so evidently orchestrating every detail, loving us, leading us.  Now that we are back among the familiar, I want this theme of following Him into the glorious unknown to live on in me.  I don't want the familiar and the shackles of self-deception (that somehow I'm back in control) to muddy that intimacy that I tasted in a foreign land of trusting Him/depending upon Him/following Him wherever He leads.

Do you hear our Father?  Saddle up your horses...