The Blessing of Work

Work. The word itself just sounds like a bore. As soon as I write the word my imagination conjures up images of hard labour and days lost behind a desk. I wonder what you're thinking as you read the word. It's something that most people do, in some form or another, and that most people take for granted. Despite how you feel about work, it's an extremely valuable thing. It gives your days purpose and you get to contribute to society. It also provides money that can help provide for your needs and the needs of your loved ones.

After 6 months of not having work, I'm feeling a bit lost. My days often don't have a purpose or goal and time just slips away. You might think that this is the best type of holiday ever, but, after 6 months, it's just too much. I've developed bad sleeping patterns and the lifestyle of a hermit. I feel unproductive and, at times, a drain on society.

That said, I have now got a job which starts in the new year!! It's not what I was originally thinking of doing, and it's night shift, which is not ideal, but my perspective of work has changed. I'm thankful that I will now be able to spend at least some of my time (it's a part-time job) in a productive manner and that there will be some purpose to some of my nights. I'll be able to provide at least something towards my needs and the needs of those I love. I feel like I'm a participating member of society again.

So when you head off to work again after your holidays, have a think about what your work means to you. Think about what you can be thankful for with your work and your job. And have a think about what having work would mean to those who haven't got any.

Limbo

I'm living in Limbo. It's been just over 5 months since I got back to Australia, and it feels like I'm just sitting here waiting for my life to begin. Before I left the Netherlands, I was eagerlly awaiting a new start. I was thinking about all the possibilities that life held for me. A new place to live, a new job, a change. But it seems that this new start has been put on hold. I feel like someone has pushed the pause button on my life, and I have no idea when they're going to push play again.

 

I know this sounds quite dramatic, but it's the truth. I'm currently living with my parents and looking for work. That's about it. While it was nice to have some down time, 5 months is a bit of overkill. I'm not currently living my 'old life' in NL, but I also haven't started my 'new life' in Aust. It's starting to get frustrating.

How do you pray for a dying loved one?

Visiting a dying loved one is a hard thing. Wednesday was especially hard for me to visit my Poppa. Over the 80mins that I was with him, he was up and down like a yo-yo. Firstly he was hardly talking and didn't really recognise that I was there. It was heartbreaking and very hard for me to bear. After a little while he rallied a bit and during his lunch was even joking with me! He was being a bit cheeky, which is the way that I want to remember him, because that's a big part of his character.

I'm not sure what is hardest- loosing my Poppa due to death, or losing him to old age and him living, but being a vegetable. That last one is the way that things are going at the moment, and it's hard. It's hard seeing such an independent and strong man simply lying in a bed waiting for death. How do I pray for him? Do I pray for him to get better and to prolong his life, or do I pray for death to come swiftly? I believe that God has the power to do both of these things, but when Poppa's like he is at the moment it's hard to believe that he will be getting any better. Maybe it would be better if he was able to be in heaven with God?

And then there's the toll that it's taking on the family. It's especially hard for my Mum, who just wants her Dad back. It's also draining, as we're spending time with him twice each day (between the three of us). If things go on the way that they are for a few months, we'll all be exhausted at the end of it. But is that what I should be thinking about? The toll that it takes on the family? Shouldn't I just be praying for him to hold on as long as he can, so we can spend more time with him and not worry about the stress? But then that in itself is selfish, because wanting him to be alive just for the sake of being alive may not be the best thing for my Poppa.

The best thing that I can do is to leave it in God's hands. It's a hard thing to do, but who better to give the situation to? I pray that my Poppa can not suffer and be in pain and that God will take him when the time is right. Please can you pray this with me?

showing friendship

Since moving away from Australia, I've been thinking a lot about friendship. I've moved a lot in my life and made many friends along the way, but leaving a place is always hard. It makes being a friend to those you've left behind a difficult situation. When living in the same city as a friend I love being able to spend time with them, attend special occassions and basically just live life with them. This is, for obvious reasons, not possible when you don't live in the same city, let alone the same country. On my holidays in Aust, I would try to visit friends that I haven't seen in a while. It's part of keeping up with them, because I believe that friendships blossom when you can actually spend face-to-face time with someone. These days the internet has made it easier to keep in contact, but I think it's also decreasing our quality of friendship, but that's a story for another time.

Since living in NL, I've been trying to work out how to best be friends with people back in Aust. It's one thing to remember their birthday, when Facebook reminds you, yet I believe friendship is so much more than that. In the 9 months that I've been living here in NL, I've missed the weddings of about 6 couples that I've been good friends with. And it's almost killed me. Such an important milestone in their lives, and I couldn't be there with them to celebrate. So I've been wondering how to be a friend from afar. Is it enough to have Facebook chats once in a while, or send letters/emails/cards? Is a phone call or a Skype chat enough?

I'd love your thoughts and ideas on the subject. Is there something that you do to stay in touch with friends, or some way that you show them that you're thinking of them when you can't be with them?

Temptation

The subject of FAT (see my earlier post for a description of FAT) this month was 'Temptation'. It was very thought provoking and an interesting topic to investigate. Here are some of the thoughts that stuck out to me:

Being God's Children

The way that we relate to God influences how we live our lives. If we see him as a demanding controlling entity in our lives, we will most likely rebel against him. If we see him as someone who will judge and punish us, fear and guilt will be our motivation to obey him. Although God has all things in his control and he will be the one to judge us at life's end, these are not the way that Christians should see God. Those who believe and trust in God have become his children. As God's children we should want to please our Father by obeying him and living for him, not becuase we fear him, but because we love him. I think that this is an important distinction when it comes to the motivation for obeying God's word. It's not because we want to work our way to heaven, or because we're afraid of what God will do to us if we don't obey, but it's because we love God that we want to obey him and his word.

Knowing your enemy

It may seem a bit harsh saying that we have an enemy, but it's the truth. As a follower of Jesus, you will be attacked in various ways. Some of these ways may be obvious, but the vast majority will be subtle. The Bible says that 'your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour' (1 Peter 5:8). We need to be aware that our enemy doesn't just want to hurt us a little, or make life a little hard for us, but that he wants to devour us, to totally destroy us. To do this he has a lot of tactics, which include lies, slander, accusations, temptations, and many more.

Society itself is at many times also one of our enemies. There are things that socitey says are 'correct' or ok, but are against what God wants for our lives. Socitey will often present it's views in ways that make them seem harmless, which can easily lull us into believing that they are harmless. We need to make sure we know what parts of society are with God's word (such as helping those less fortune) and what parts aren't in line with God's word (such as sex outside of marriage). We need to be critical of our society in order to know what we agree with and what we don't. 

How to deal with temptation

We are tempted to believe the lies of the devil and the lies of our society. We need to resist these lies and temptations and to trust in God's word. In order to do this, it's important to know what God's word is for us. Each time we are tempted or challenged, it's hard. Once that challange is over, another one comes at us. It's not an easy life, being a Christian, but it's a worthwhile one. It's one where we have the strength (from God) to overcome and to live the way that God created us. It's a life where we already have victory because of Jesus and his victory over evil and death through his death on the cross and his resurrection to life.

These are just some of the thoughts for the workshop, and I wanted to share them with you. I hope they have helped!

The Hermit

When did I become a hermit? How did it happen? When did I decide that staying in bed all day watching TV was a great way to spend the weekend? Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on my life, yet I can't/don't want to change. At the moment I'm going to put the blame on two things:

The Weather:

I'm over the cold weather. I know I can't change it, but it's making me cranky and not wanting to do anything. The Dutch are great at just getting on with whatever they need/want to do, no matter the weather. I'm not like that. When it's cold, windy, wet, snowy etc, I really don't want to go outside. I just want to stay inside where it's warm. Since the warmest place is in bed, that's where I stay.

Being sick of meeting people:

I know this might sound stupid, but I'm sick of meeting people. I've always enjoyed meeting new people, but for some reason I just feel like I've reached my limit. I feel like I don't have the energy to meet new people and to spend time getting to know them. I mean, I've been here for almost 8 months, and I'm still meeting people. I don't feel like I have many friends that I can just be me around and that I know well and that they know me. I have many of these friends in Australia, which is probably why I miss it so much.

So I've turned into The Hermit. I prefer to sit around the house by myself and watch TV, read and scrounge for food (since going to the supermarket involves going outside in the cold). It's a bad habit, and it's one I want to change...just not yet. Hopefully it will change when the weather does, which in NL means 'who knows when'. 

Learning the Dutch Language

So now that I've been here for over 5 months, I thought it was about time to talk about how I'm going learning the Dutch language. It's not easy, let me tell you that! Learning a second language isn't easy, especially if you're from a country that doesn't put much emphasis on it. That said, I've always wanted to fluently know another language. To be able to make sense of something that sounds like 'gobble de gook' to others. I think it's amazing.

I've taken one 7 week course already, and today I started another. One of the best things about these courses are that the common language that the participants have is Dutch, so Dutch is spoken for 2 hours straight. Everyone's pretty much at the same level as well, which means that the language is easier to understand than conversations with Dutch people. Another great thing is that I'm actually starting to learn some of the grammar and the sentence structure. Today we looked at asking questions and although that sounds simple enough, the structure is important, and in my case, different to the structure of a question in English. Let me try to give an example:

The question- Weet je of ik deze computer mag gebruiken?
Literally- Know you if I this computer may use?
Not literally- Do you know if I can use this computer?

Can you see the difference? I mean it's not really that hard, but I have to think about what I want to say before I say it, and that takes time. And that's only one aspect of the language. Another is pronunciation of words. Some combinations of letters just stump me! The worst being 'schr' as in schrijven.

My biggest problem at the moment is that I'm shy. Other than in class, I don't really speak Dutch. I listen to Dutch when I'm working with the Dutch students, but I don't really speak it much. My Dutch housemate and I are working on talking in Dutch more, so that should help. Tonight I'm going to dinner at a Dutch couple's house, one of which doesn't speak much English, so that should also be a good chance for me to practice. Another problem is that the Dutch people are so nice! When I say things sometimes they automatically switch to English because they notice my accent. This is happening less, so maybe that means my pronunciation is improving- at least I can think that!

To finish off this post, I want to leave you with some of my favourite Dutch words so far. If you have any questions about the language (or corrections if you're Dutch), feel free to comment!

Gezelig!- There's not really a translation that really fits this word. It's kind of like 'comfy' or 'nice' but it's so much more than that. I think that's the reason why I like this word (despite it being hard for me to say!)
Ongelofelijk/Ongelooflijk- 'Unbelievable'/'incredible'. I love saying this word
Slaap lekker- literally means 'sleep yummy'. Means sleep well, but makes me laugh
Pannenkoeken- 'pancakes'. Not only tasty, but fun to say!