Living in a foreign country can have its drawbacks. Especially one – the difficulty of crossing the border! This experience is enough to make a grown man beg…. for papers… for entry…. for mercy. Because, at that moment, the border immigration officers have ALL the power. It seems there are rules, but no one really knows the rules. This just makes it more fun. My last experience with the border was fairly painless. I thank the Lord for that. But, it did make me think about border issues in my life.
After being in the states awhile and gazing into the television for way too many hours (because it “talked to me” in English), I thought of the border issues of my mind. What am I allowing in without a fight? What are my rules? What do I give limited access too so that I can keep the pure mind that God called me to maintain?
It also reminded me of border issues in my mind. If I am trying to die to myself daily, then I can’t be having conversations in my mind about my rights. Rights to my own time, space, or wants. I need to look outward instead of inward. When people need my time or attention, my first thought should not be ‘me’! It kind of spoiled me going home and having everyone think I was so great. It filtered in through my brain and made me think I truly was something and some how deserved certain things. So, there is another border issue. To die or not to die. To have the courage to die to myself, I have to stay plugged into the Word. So that in dying to self, I am living in my spirit with Christ.
So with all the frustration of the border, I do have to thank them for making me think about the borders in my life. I want to maintain the borders that keep me different from the world so that I can live my life as a witness to Jesus. I had an interesting conversation with one of my boys who lives in our home through the Hope Program. He shared with me that he thinks his teacher is a Christian. His only proof is the man’s attitudes and actions. What a testimony for an eighteen-year-old kid to notice there is a difference in your life! I want people to see that difference in me. I want to talk about Jesus, but I also want to walk in a way that people see the difference and wonder why it is there!