A Glimpse of Things to Come

One unfortunate thing about doing these short study abroad trips is that you end up isolated from the real culture. You have just a few weeks there, and all of the summer students are American. You don't really get immersed in the culture, you kind of walk around and see it through your American bubble. However, there has been one experience that burst that bubble and let me catch a glimpse of Italian life.

The Euro Cup is currently raging in Vienna, Austria. This is one step below the World Cup for European football lovers (or soccer, you stinking Americans). The first night that Italy played, my roommates and I ignorantly turned on the tv in the living room and sat down to watch the game. I got my computer out, checked some e-mail. When the first Italian shot at a goal narrowly missed, we heard the cry echoing up to our window. It was as if the entire city of Florence cried out together. Curious, I grabed my stuff and took to the streets to see exactly what's going on.

Right outside my apartment door is a little cafe on a street corner. The cafe has a flat panel tv mounted above the bar, and outside the cafe was a crowd three or four rows deep. Business people, teenagers, beggars off the street, all gathered to watch the match. As I walked on I saw this was the case at every cafe, shop, and bar. I saw an important looking person step out of an office on a blackberry. He passes a bar and gets very distracted from his conversation. He says something quickly into the phone, hangs up, and joins the crowd.

I walked on, spending about ten minutes at each bar or cafe, groaning as a shot misses and partying, oh how we partied, when Italy scored. It was so cool to see how every possible difference between these people melted away as the Italia football team united all people to themselves. It was a sweet glimpse of what life might look when every knee bows at the sound of a single name, and people made to worship fulfill their ultimate purpose.

Hopes and Fears

I hope against all hope it isn't true. I greatly fear it is. I pray for truth and justice.

Article:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/06/18/gitmo.detainees/index.html

Home

Traveling doesn't come easily for me. I'm a bit of a pack rat. I always try to take my whole world with me. I think I'm just way too comfortable with home to leave it all behind. I always want to be there. It's a funny thing, home.

I've been abroad for a little over three weeks now. I'm kind of getting in that stride of being comfortable away from home. As soon as you leave home, you feel that tear deep inside, like a part of your soul is being left behind. You wonder aimlessly for a while, wishing you could go back. No matter how many amazing things you see over the course of a day, when you lie down at night, you long for home. I think Jesus understood this feeling when he told his disciples the extreme cost of following him, no place to lay your head. You must, for a season of this life, abandon your right to home. You must answer the call to "go."

But it is so innate in us. Wherever we are, we don't want to go. This previous weekend, I took a little trip away from Florence to visit the Isle of Capri, Pompey and a few other spots. It was beautiful and inspiring. However, when I stepped off the bus back in Florence, I felt that warm, welcome rush... familiarity. I was back in a place I knew; if only for a week, it was familiar to me. There is a gradation there. Florence is much more familiar than the Southern Italian coast, but when I think about Northwest Arkansas, I know that I'm not really home here in Florence either.

I think there are some very good, right things in the desire for home. I think God puts that in our hearts. You can see it in the Israelites fight for the promised land. But, sometimes God calls us to let that go for a season. I pray that God will give me the faith to invest deeply in the places he plants me, but also to always be ready to go. I have to remember that home is coming...

Office Sighting in Florence

Well, I had a celebrity encounter last week in Florence. Kassie and I were walking around Florence and stopped at a cafe to look at the menu, and there he is. Leslie David Baker, the actor who plays Stanley on the Office is sitting down having dinner and wine with a woman. I'm 100% certain it was him. I stared quite rudely for a second. He turned and looked at me and inclined his head my way. Even though he had sunglasses on to disguise himself, I could imagine him rolling his eyes and giving that cynical Stanley "Really?" I wanted to respect his privacy, so I walked away. But I did snap a quick paparazzi shot as I walked by. And yes after weeks of touring Europe and seeing amazing sights of both religious and historical significance, this is the first thing that merited a blog post. Hopefully there will be more to come.