The "Norm"

It's amazing to me how less than a year ago the "norm" to me was driving a car wherever I needed to go, getting Moe's (or whatever I wanted) whenever I didn't feel like cooking, going to Walmart and purchasing enough food to last me two weeks (other than veggies and fruit of course), and only taking 20 minutes AT THE MOST to get anywhere in town I needed to go.
Oh, how things have changed!
As I was sitting on the bus looking out the window at the giant Soviet style buildings I was passing, the thought occurred to me, "this is my norm".
I now don't ever drive, I cook almost every night because there isn't really the option of "fast food" here, I walk everywhere that I can, I usually get yelled at (at least once a day) by someone because I don't understand what they are saying to me :) (FYI: this doesn't bother me...I usually just laugh!) It takes me 45 minutes or more to get to church (by bus, tram, and on foot), and I go to the store almost everyday to buy fresh food. This is my "norm".
None of these changes are bad; they are just...changes.
Before coming here I owned what comparitively would have been a minimal amount of clothes to a lot of people in the USA. However, it was still a LARGE amount. Yet, I NEVER had anything to wear. I now own about 1/3 of what I did in the U.S. and I don't think there's been a day that I've thought, "I don't have anything to wear today." It's just not a concern now. It's just not a "norm".
Before coming here I was always so busy that I went from one thing to the next. Any "inconvenient" unplanned things (like someone wanting me to spend time with them spur of the moment) just had to wait or caused me to get "huffy". Now :) HA HA! My life is full of "hey, come for coffee, right now". Those "drop what you are doing and come do this" moments that use to irritate me and "mess up my whole day" are now my "norm". And by the way I LOVE IT!!!
Before coming here I had a perception (a theory if you will) of what it meant to cling to Christ. I'm not taking my growth over the years as not serious by any means, but now my "norm" is clinging to Him daily in a way I never knew before.
You see, the Lord grows us in different ways at different times. He knows what we need, He knows what we need to let go of, He knows what we need to give up.
He knew that in coming here it wouldn't just be to use me to share His love, but it would be a-WHOLE-nother realm of growth in my life. So far it's taught me that while I didn't loose my identity (first as a believer, and also as an American) by moving to a different culture, my "norms" have changed. And with those changes, I'm learning to serve and love Him more and more, and I'm also learning what "norms" I need to "let go of" more and more. Things like accumulation, things like not letting go of plans and taking time for people. And I'm learning to pick up "norms" like the joy of cooking/creating every night, learning how to be intentional to talk with the Lord during a bus ride, tram ride and walk to church, and just learning how to "be" and slow down.
So, I can tell you one thing, no matter what my "norms" become year after year I pray the Lord continues to grow me to see Christ as my constant "norm".