Milestones. Have you given them much thought? Where does the word come from? What does it really mean? That came up today as I tried to explain to our Russian teacher what a milestone was/is.
This began when I told Irina that Suzanne and I had passed a milestone in our time here. We’ve felt in the past that there have been points of transition in our stay: someone actually asking us for directions. (Well, we think they were asking directions since we didn’t understand what they were saying.) Or, getting on buses by ourselves then getting off at the right place. We’ve passed another milestone. (Admittedly, these are “small potatoes,” but we get excited over baby steps. You have to when they’re the only type of steps you’re taking.) We were asked for directions and gave an answer that fit!
Suzanne and I attended the International Christian Fellowship this past Sunday. It’s a gathering of English speakers from about 24 different nations who want to worship
Jesus. After church, rather than catching a bus nearby, we walked about 20 minutes to a popular area of town that features a market, a Western-type mall, and a park. From there we took a bus home that almost stops outside our door. On the bus, a young man turned to me and asked me a question in Russian. I didn’t have a clue what he said, but I answered confidently, “Nyet Russki.” (“No Russian.”) Not discouraged he tried again, “Do you speak English?” “Yes!” I answered with a fair amount of surprise. He proceeded to ask if I knew the way to a suburb which happens to be where our friends live. I told him to stay on the bus we were on, and after we got off it would be two more turns and then gave him the name of the bus stop. Wow! I’ve only been here three months and we’re able to help with directions!
You can see that we get excited over small things. It makes me wonder: what ever happened to our excitement over small things? We get excited when children accomplish small things. Why can’t we carry over some of that same excitement about the things that occur in our lives? What about our spiritual lives? Can we see progress? Perhaps we need some more celebrations to make our lives more exciting and less dull or routine. When we see progress let’s get excited that the Living God is active in our lives.
This began when I told Irina that Suzanne and I had passed a milestone in our time here. We’ve felt in the past that there have been points of transition in our stay: someone actually asking us for directions. (Well, we think they were asking directions since we didn’t understand what they were saying.) Or, getting on buses by ourselves then getting off at the right place. We’ve passed another milestone. (Admittedly, these are “small potatoes,” but we get excited over baby steps. You have to when they’re the only type of steps you’re taking.) We were asked for directions and gave an answer that fit!
Suzanne and I attended the International Christian Fellowship this past Sunday. It’s a gathering of English speakers from about 24 different nations who want to worship
Jesus. After church, rather than catching a bus nearby, we walked about 20 minutes to a popular area of town that features a market, a Western-type mall, and a park. From there we took a bus home that almost stops outside our door. On the bus, a young man turned to me and asked me a question in Russian. I didn’t have a clue what he said, but I answered confidently, “Nyet Russki.” (“No Russian.”) Not discouraged he tried again, “Do you speak English?” “Yes!” I answered with a fair amount of surprise. He proceeded to ask if I knew the way to a suburb which happens to be where our friends live. I told him to stay on the bus we were on, and after we got off it would be two more turns and then gave him the name of the bus stop. Wow! I’ve only been here three months and we’re able to help with directions!You can see that we get excited over small things. It makes me wonder: what ever happened to our excitement over small things? We get excited when children accomplish small things. Why can’t we carry over some of that same excitement about the things that occur in our lives? What about our spiritual lives? Can we see progress? Perhaps we need some more celebrations to make our lives more exciting and less dull or routine. When we see progress let’s get excited that the Living God is active in our lives.
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