Driving Out The Canaanites or Why God Leaves Problems In Our Lives

I came across and interesting passage in Exodus a few weeks ago, Exodus 23:20-33. I've been thinking about it ever since. The passage is God talking to Moses, giving promises and instructions about what is to happen to the Children of Israel when they enter the Promised Land.

I am particularly intrigued by verses 28-30.

I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.Exodus 23:28-30

I've been thinking about my life and how God has dealt with me. It seems He has used the ‘little by little’ policy with me in many areas. With some things, the moment I acknowledge it is a problem and ask God to remove it, it is gone the next moment. With others I have struggled with for what seems like forever.

Take fear for example. I’ve prayed and agonised over that for years and for the longest time it felt like God was ignoring those prayers. In the last 3 months, since I’ve been in Korea, He’s suddenly started working in this area and I feel fear loosening its grip – for real this time, it’s not just doling out the chains for the pleasure of yanking me back, it’s actually shrinking and I have peace. Thank you God!!!!! However I’ve already talked about fear extensively so I’m not going to go into that again today.

What I find interesting is that looking back in my life, the fear has actually been a protection for me. In the years when I was not following God the only thing that stopped me from doing some really really stupid and self destructive things was the fear. I see this as an example of God allowing the ‘Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites’ to stay in the land until I had increased enough to take possession of it, stopping the ‘wild beasts from becoming too numerous and the land from becoming desolate.’ Basically the fear has stopped me from destroying myself and my future.

In the last three months God has ‘increased’ me; shown me things about myself, taught me lessons I needed to learn, helped me to accept some things, forgive other things, and let go of still others, and most importantly to give everything to Him and rest in the promise that He is the one who works in my life, who sanctifies me, reminding me that it is not me!

While I am exceedingly thankful that God is finally in the process of driving out the ‘Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites’ I can actually look back at the fear now and be thankful. I have an exciting future ahead of me! No idea what God has planed, but I know that whatever it is I’m really going to enjoy exploring this new land!!!

Maybe you should take stock of your own life, what is in your way, stopping you from progressing the way you want to? Maybe God is leaving it there for a reason. Maybe it is a protection – yes it’s not the best circumstance; but, is it better than what is very likely to come in its place if it wasn’t there? Maybe instead of fighting this thing you should thank God for His protection and ask for His help to ‘increase’ you. Then He will be free to drive the ‘Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites’ out of your life and bring you into the land He has prepared for you too. 

Money, Money, Money ... It's A Rich Man's World ...

This is what Korean money looks like, I'm showing you this because this evening my bog post is mainly about shopping. 'Won' (as in the first part of 'I wandered down the road') is the name of the Korean currency. 1000 won is worth about US$1 and NZ$1.20. In general things are much cheaper than they are at home, I feel like forever in a bargain hunters paradise!!!!!

Today I went to Itaewon. Itaewon is the part of Seoul that caters to foreigners. I really don't like it, feels kind of seedy. However all the shop keepers speak English and there are some things that you can only get there; like Milo, Timtams, certain herbs and spices, and green lipped mussels from New Zealand, no I didn't buy them. There is lots of touristy trap type items and people hawking fake brand names on the streets and it is the dirtiest place I've seen in Korea. There is also lots of traditional Korean things as well, with a large mark up in price when compared to just about any other shop in Korea. Basically if you can buy it somewhere else then do!! However I have to go there sometimes because that is the only place I know of where I can shoes and clothes that actually fit - and Timtams ;-).

Today I was not shopping, I was playing tour guide. Showing the new teacher how to get there on the subway and where the important shops are - that would be the Foreign Food Mart and a store on 'Africa Street' that sells a bunch of other imported stuff - that shop is known to me as 'The Timtam Shop.' Then I made him figure out how to get us home again. Next time he wants to go to Itaewon he's on his own - unless I actually want to buy something there. Actually kind of dreading my next trip, have to buy new shoes and I HATE shoe shopping at the best of times, and these are not the best of times!!!

 After finishing our shopping we went to Taco Bell for lunch and I have to say that Mexican food loses a lot of substance/flavour/reason-to-eat-it, when it is translated from Mexico into an American fast food chain and then re-translated into a Korean variation of an American fast food restaurant pretending to be Mexican! I think I only went to Taco Bell once or twice when I was in the States but this was nothing like it. Half the size, twice the price and none of the flavour. The only thing that was consistent was the paper the burritto was wrapped in when it was delivered. Won't be going there again! On the other hand I do know where there is a fabulous Indian restaurant that makes the best Palak Paneer I've ever eaten!!! And it is closer to my house than Itaewon too!

The centre of the 'suburb' - for want of a better word - where I live is called Nowon. It is the second last stop on the subway before I get off. Always makes me laugh, in my mind Nowon means Flat-broke!

Night all, I'm off to move the sofa and them I'm falling into bed. I've been alternating writing this blog and checking facebook with rearranging the furniture in my apartment. Once I have it arranged to my satisfaction I shall take pictures and post them to facebook so that you can see what my apartment is like.

Cheers

Cat

PS There was no rain today, so no gumboot pictures.

Random Time

I want this Umbrella!!!!!

So today's blog is going to be fairly random. I will be musing about my thoughts on God's Timing, describing this afternoons adventures, and discussing a couple of the stranger things I have seen recently.

But first I am going to complain about the weather and my hair!

Currently we are in the middle of what I have been told is Monsoon season. Basically that means it rains. A-LOT! Either it is a light continual drizzle or the bottom drops out of the clouds! Interspersed by occasional muggy moments when there is a lack of water falling out of the sky - instead it evaporates off of the ground, returns to the sky and gets ready to fall on us all over again.

Now I actually don't mind the rain - stops me feeling too homesick for Palmerston North ;-) What I want to complain about is what it does to my hair. No matter how hard I try it will NOT stay straight! I can get it straight in my bedroom and before I've even left the apartment it is beginning to curl with gay abandon. Have been trying to tame it by pulling it back, or up into a bun - but those curls have a way of escaping all the restraints I try to place on them. (They even have their way with hairspray - and Koreans make some heavy duty hairspray!) I've been assured that this monsoon weather should be finished within the next week, but also warned that it will be followed by a few weeks of extreme heat and humidity. Have basically resigned myself to wild curls for the next six to eight weeks, and am going to stop wasting my time trying to straighten it - maybe I'll finally learn how to do curls - who would have thought that was a lesson I would learn in Korea? A country where almost everyone has naturally straight hair.

Fashion Oddities: With the onslaught of the rain a new object has been making it self known as the latest 'must have' fashion accessory. Gumboots!! (For my US friends I think you call them Wellingtons?) I have now seen several women in beautiful, dainty, frilly, and/or lacy dresses - generally very short dresses - that have chosen to finish off their ensemble with a pair of gumboots. And what gumboots they are; black ones that look like they just came straight off a farm in New Zealand, bright neon yellow ones, purple ones with pink polka-dots, and even on one particularly memorable occasion gumboots with three inch heels. Sadly I did not get any photo's but will be going to Itaewon tomorrow so hopefully I can get a few surreptitious photos on the way ... Now pragmatically I know these are the most practical footwear for the current weather, (except for that pair with the three inch heels, can't think of anywhere they would be appropriate,) but aesthetically ... they hurt me!

Signs: Korea has lots and lots and lots of signs. They are everywhere!! Anybody that feels the need to tell his fellow Koreans anything goes and puts up a sign! Today I saw one that said "Beer Bang, European Free Pub." I then spent the next ten minutes wondering what that means! Before I tell you my cogitations I better explain the word Bang, Bang means room, and it is pronounced so that the 'a' has the same sound as the 'u' in cup. Here are three of the more reasonable explanations I came up with for that sign:
1. There are no Europeans in this bar. But why they would think that would be a great selling point is beyond me, there are no Europeans in most bars in Korea, simply because the European to bar ratio is so low!
2. Europeans can drink here for free. But I think if that was the case then they would go out of business very very quickly because every European in the country would go there - well every European that drinks ...
3. Drink here and we'll give you one free European for every ten drinks you buy ... And after that my explanations became progressively more ridiculous!

Direction Giving: When going somewhere new in Korea the best way to give directions is to say "I'll meet you in front of ... and lead you in from there." Even the simplest of directions can become exceedingly complicated. "Leave the subway by exit 6, go straight down the street for 10 metres, turn right at the hot-dog vending machine, follow the alley for 3 minutes, enter the building on the left beside the kimchi shop, take the first staircase you come to and go down five flights, turn left again at the bottom and wend your way down the hall  round the corners until you find the sign with a lotus on it, go into the cafe diagonally opposite from that sign - I'll be the one that's not Korean." Or, you can say "I'll meet you at exit 6!"

Puddles: Today I was meant to join an evening Bible Study group, so I followed the directions and arrived at the meeting point and the person who was supposed to meet me to guide me the rest of the way to the apartment where the Bible Study was to be held did not show up. Major miscommunications - no hard feelings :-). Anyway as I was about to make my way back to the bus stop to go home again the sky opened above my head and the street turned into a river in no time flat! I had a nice big umbrella but even it was unable to stop me from becoming soaked through from the waist down. I figured that since I was already soaked there really was no reason not to take advantage of the invitation offered by the puddles and spent a lovely five minutes stomping down the street and splashing in every puddle I could find. No idea what all the Koreans I went past thought, and really who cares, I'm never going to see them again anyway :-)

Timing:
This week I've been reading in 2 Kings, and I came across the story of the Shunammite Woman - the one that builds the room for Elisha, God blesses her with a son, the son dies, Elisha brings him back to life. (2 Kings 4:8-36) Well I discovered that that is not the end of the story. In Chapter 8:1-6 the Shunammite Woman turns up again. This time there has been a famine, Elisha warned the woman in advance and tells her to leave Israel for seven years. She obeys and escapes the famine. At the end of the seven years she comes back to Israel and goes to see the king to reclaim her lands. When she gets there she discovers that Gehazi, Elisha's servant is there, the King had asked him to tell some of the stories of how God has worked through Elisha. At the exact moment when the Shunammite Woman enters the throne room Gehazi has just finished telling the story of Elisha bringing her son back to life, he ends the story with "... and here she is!" The king is so impressed with this that he gives back the woman's lands AND all the income the land has earned in the last seven years.

In this story God's timing was absolutely perfect - as we would/should expect, Him being God and all. However I often don't trust God's timing. I find myself doubting that God can achieve these perfect results in my life, not because he is unable but because I am so ... (insert demeaning adjective of choice) ... "Did I wreck God's plan because ... ?" etc! But the fact is God knows the future, He knows my insecurities, my weaknesses and my plain stupidities, and He takes these into account when He is making His plans. I only have to trust that at just the right time things will fall perfectly into place, no fuss no bother, no effort on my part. In the mean time my job is trust in Him, ask Him to be the Lord of my life every single day, follow His promptings, do the things that are directly in front of me to the best of my ability, and STOP worrying! How easy is that? And liberating, peaceful, guilt free, etc. No more angst about "Did I just wreak another of God's plans??" or beating myself up because of the afore mentioned insecurities/weaknesses/stupidities. The beat free zone of course then leaves my mind free to focus more on God which then allows Him  to work on and in me, healing my insecurities, growing my weaknesses and correcting my stupidities.

Can't help but love a God like that!