How To Play

This summer I had the thrill of international travel. My husband had a conference in Tokyo, and I got to tag along. It was exciting to be in a foreign country, and Japan was very foreign to me. From food to landscapes, people to transportation, language to plumbing, everything was different. It was exciting but it was also exhausting. When nothing is familiar even the simplest task becomes difficult. Making a souvenir purchase involved dealing with an unfamiliar currency. How much did it really cost and which coins and bills should I use. Ordering a meal for example took all my concentration. What was the etiquette of the restaurant? Do I sit first or order at the counter? And then figuring out the food. Sure there were pictures, sometimes even plastic models of the food but what looked like a piece of chicken I recognized turned out to be pork intestine. Not my first choice for lunch.

One of our sightseeing trips took us to Tokyo DisneySea. Instead of Fantasy Land or Frontier Land as we were used to from Disneyland we were delighted to discovered places like: Mediterranean Harbor, American Waterfront, and Arabian Coast. A theme park is not so hard to understand. It’s all good fun. The exhausting part is usually just walking around and standing in line! And the food is easy to follow too. Though we did discover popcorn with six different flavors including curry, and black pepper! (Delicious by the way.) But even in a theme park there are times I was lost in the culture. Waiting in line for a ride I saw a sign half English and half Japanese. The English told me How to Play but the instructions were in Japanese! It gave me a giggle. The pictures showed me what to do but I couldn’t read the words.

The sign got me to thinking though about another way where I almost know what is going on but not always sure. I thought of my Christian walk and how I don’t always know how to play. Sometimes it feels like the instructions are written in a foreign language . . .

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (Luke 6:31).

Turn the other cheek. (Matthew 5:39).

Carry each other’s burdens. (Galatians 6:2).

These are not things I always do naturally. They are foreign to my human nature. It can be difficult to live them out. It takes all my strength some days just to decipher what I should do. Like figuring out instructions in Japanese. But one thing I have learned I can draw on God’s strength to help me live as He would have me. Happily His instructions were written with love and that is a language we can all understand.

As a #christian, do you know how to #play? Lisa Bogart @MargaretMcSweeney
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