As a California mountain-and-beach girl, I have been blessed with beautiful surroundings my entire life. I love God’s creation and have always found His palette of green trees, blue skies, and the endless combinations of vibrant colors that He fills each day with to be a sweet and natural way to connect with my Creator.
What a shock it has been to live in a place where my most natural way of praising God is consistently shut down by the city: drab buildings, uncomfortable humidity, white, unbearable smog that sometimes weighs on us as thickly as a blanket, and people everywhere. For the three months that we’ve been here, I’ve asked myself several times, “How can anyone live here?”
I was actually asking myself this question on the way to church this weekend. The day had been really yucky, all the clothes in my closet felt damp and dirty from the sticky humidity that seeps into everything, and for the fourth time in a row, there was no hot water in the shower. Ugh.
But then I went to church, and this was the first song we sang:
What a shock it has been to live in a place where my most natural way of praising God is consistently shut down by the city: drab buildings, uncomfortable humidity, white, unbearable smog that sometimes weighs on us as thickly as a blanket, and people everywhere. For the three months that we’ve been here, I’ve asked myself several times, “How can anyone live here?”
I was actually asking myself this question on the way to church this weekend. The day had been really yucky, all the clothes in my closet felt damp and dirty from the sticky humidity that seeps into everything, and for the fourth time in a row, there was no hot water in the shower. Ugh.
But then I went to church, and this was the first song we sang:
Nothing is Impossible
I’m not gonna live by what I see,
I’m not gonna live by what I feel,
Deep down I,
Know that You’re here with me,
I know that, You can do anything
Through You,
I can do anything,
I can do all things,
For it’s You who gives me strength,
Nothing is impossible
Through you,
Blind eyes are opened,
Strongholds are broken,
I am living by faith,
Nothing is impossible!
I believe, I believe,
I believe, I believe in You!
Wow. It’s the perfect song for living in Shanghai. I’m not gonna live by what I see. I see smog, but I’m not going to live by that. I’m not going to live by that sinking depression that fills me when all I see is the thick gray smothering of pollution. I’m not gonna live by what I feel. I’m not going to live by the icky dampness of my clothes. I’m not going to live by the cold water in the shower. Deep down I know You’re here with me, and I know that You can do anything!
The smog and the damp are my reminders that my Creator is with me. Right here, with me in my daily life. What a great reminder of my everyday need to be dependent on Him. How easy it is for me to see a bright blue sky with big puffy white clouds and praise God. How powerful it has been though, to discover that God is no less sweet here in the dreariness of the gray city, and he is no less deserving of my praise. When the day weighs down on me, He presses in ever closer and ever loving, and fills me with that perfect affection that only He can give.
God has us here, and He is here too. We see Him in our friends here, who demonstrate what a true Christian community should look like, we see His daily grace for us in the little things that can make living in China so hard, and we see Him working in us and through us here, which is the most humbling of all.
So how can anyone really live here? Because God does too. Through Him we can do anything!
Nothing is impossible!
The smog and the damp are my reminders that my Creator is with me. Right here, with me in my daily life. What a great reminder of my everyday need to be dependent on Him. How easy it is for me to see a bright blue sky with big puffy white clouds and praise God. How powerful it has been though, to discover that God is no less sweet here in the dreariness of the gray city, and he is no less deserving of my praise. When the day weighs down on me, He presses in ever closer and ever loving, and fills me with that perfect affection that only He can give.
God has us here, and He is here too. We see Him in our friends here, who demonstrate what a true Christian community should look like, we see His daily grace for us in the little things that can make living in China so hard, and we see Him working in us and through us here, which is the most humbling of all.
So how can anyone really live here? Because God does too. Through Him we can do anything!
Nothing is impossible!