ambiguities
I like to find fixes for things. I suppose that is one of the reasons that I am finding all of life in general a bit stressful through this process. I would like to fix whatever it is that is stopping my house from selling... I would like to fix whatever it is that would make people join our partnership team. I would like to fix watching my oldest cry as she packs up the only home that she can ever remember living in... I would like to fix it all. Do what needs to get done and move on.
God hasn't allowed me that privilege. I can't fix any of these things... He is in control... all I can do is what I am doing. Seek Him.
I am reading a book for our training in North Carolina. The jist of the training is to understand how to serve within a multicultural organization while working in a country and culture foreign to your own... and do it with respect and understanding as Christ would. So anyhow... in preparation for this training we are reading the book Cross-Cultural Servanthood by Duane Elmer. The author made a very valid point in the forth chapter that I just hadn't thought about. Here is the excerpt:
Tolerance for Ambiguity.
A second skill necessary for openness to function effectively is tolerance for ambiguity - a prominent topic in the cross-cultural communication literature. Tolerating ambiguity, or living in uncertainty for periods of time, taxes our emotional strength, which is turns drains our physical capacity. Most Westerners manage their lives using PDAs, daily planners or computer pop-up reminders. Little room remains for the unexpected or ambiguous. We work hard to avoid uncertainty and to live an ordered, predictable life. The unknown, the unexpected, is an unwelcome intrusion in our schedule. We believe it to be dangerous to the order we have built in our existence.
During times of ambiguity we want things to clear up, we want answers, we want understanding, we want resolution, and we want it now. Some of us don't perform well during times of uncertainty. There are, however, two compelling reasons why we should exercise patience, keep the anxiety in check and patiently endure the difficult time: (1) God wants us to know that He is in control of our lives and will act in love towards us at all times even though it may not seem so at the moment; and (2) God wants us to learn through this experience to grow us in some important way. Practicing patience during times of ambiguity in our home culture means the skill will be available for us to cope with ambiguities of the new culture.
When entering a new culture, ambiguities press on us at all times.
Maybe all this "not knowing" is because it's preparing us for a life where we won't know anything at all... yeah, I think I am growing thicker skin through these experiences... and I have no better way to prepare for the future than what God allows.
Ambigiuties... shambiguities... He has got this thing. ;o)
God hasn't allowed me that privilege. I can't fix any of these things... He is in control... all I can do is what I am doing. Seek Him.
I am reading a book for our training in North Carolina. The jist of the training is to understand how to serve within a multicultural organization while working in a country and culture foreign to your own... and do it with respect and understanding as Christ would. So anyhow... in preparation for this training we are reading the book Cross-Cultural Servanthood by Duane Elmer. The author made a very valid point in the forth chapter that I just hadn't thought about. Here is the excerpt:
Tolerance for Ambiguity.
A second skill necessary for openness to function effectively is tolerance for ambiguity - a prominent topic in the cross-cultural communication literature. Tolerating ambiguity, or living in uncertainty for periods of time, taxes our emotional strength, which is turns drains our physical capacity. Most Westerners manage their lives using PDAs, daily planners or computer pop-up reminders. Little room remains for the unexpected or ambiguous. We work hard to avoid uncertainty and to live an ordered, predictable life. The unknown, the unexpected, is an unwelcome intrusion in our schedule. We believe it to be dangerous to the order we have built in our existence.
During times of ambiguity we want things to clear up, we want answers, we want understanding, we want resolution, and we want it now. Some of us don't perform well during times of uncertainty. There are, however, two compelling reasons why we should exercise patience, keep the anxiety in check and patiently endure the difficult time: (1) God wants us to know that He is in control of our lives and will act in love towards us at all times even though it may not seem so at the moment; and (2) God wants us to learn through this experience to grow us in some important way. Practicing patience during times of ambiguity in our home culture means the skill will be available for us to cope with ambiguities of the new culture.
When entering a new culture, ambiguities press on us at all times.
Maybe all this "not knowing" is because it's preparing us for a life where we won't know anything at all... yeah, I think I am growing thicker skin through these experiences... and I have no better way to prepare for the future than what God allows.
Ambigiuties... shambiguities... He has got this thing. ;o)
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