Continue. Stand firmly.

He has brought me into His own presence, and I am holy and blameless as I stand before Him without a single fault. But I must continue to believe this truth, stand firmly in it, and not drift away from the assurance I received when I heard the Good News. (Col. 1:22-23a)

I am a chosen woman. I am a royal priest... God’s very own possession. As a result, I can show others the goodness of God, for He called me out of the darkness into His wonderful light. (1 Pet. 2:9)

Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of the truth. Especially when living in another country. Your comfort zone is invaded, your limits are pushed, your "normal" is challenged, your world is turned upside-down... and new "realities" are formed. There's a constant battle between who you were and who you are becoming...between your born-and-raised culture and your living-in culture.

And if, in that living-in culture, you work with more than one nationality of people, you can multiply this whole complex scenario by 100. For every nationality you encounter.

You have to sift through cultural expectations, communication barriers, personalities... and figure out how they match up to the overarching truth in His Word. I often don't realize when lies start to creep in. I don't realize when other peoples' words or actions (good or bad) stir things up in my mind and cloud out the truth. Before long I end up on an out-of-control whirlpool of mixed messages. That is, until I bump into the truth.

I remember as a kid being fascinated with the way water moved. I liked stirring a pitcher of water (or juice) and watching it swirl around in a whirlpool. And by gradually stirring faster, the whirlpool got bigger and bigger. But I also liked sticking the spoon back into the water and bringing the whirlpool to a grinding halt.

For me, the grinding halt came in the form of a friend, reminding me of God's truths of who I am, who God has made me, how He has used me. It was then that I realized that I'd been sucked into a week-long whirlpool of cloudiness. That night I read the two verses above and knew I had to continue to believe these truths. I have to stand firmly in them.

He has chosen me.

He has a plan for me. And He has anointed me for it.

I want to be like a tree planted by the river (Ps. 1). The water still rushes past, but the tree stands firmly. Unmoved.

And that is the only reality that matters.

Fill your minds and meditate on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.
(Phil. 4:8, MSG)

I want to be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.
(Jer. 17:8 NIV)