This is more of my India.

Oh the joy of being here. I have laughed much in the last few days, some of it being sleep deprivation psychoses, some of it sheer joy, some of it situational comedy. Anyway that you look at it, I have laughed much. Between doing the chicken dance with Indian children, to sharing suckers with the elderly and watching their faces light up, sharing my sunglasses with the MTS students, or just laughing with Alli over silly things that happen. Joy. But this post is following up on your homework. Did you do it? I told you you had pre-reading from the last post. Ephesians 2 - pastor used it at the opening of the church here on campus at CEM. And it appeared that God was talking to me directly. If you read my post about my life token, you have an idea about what I was trying to leave behind - the old way of living my life the way I wanted. As the message version says in Ephesians 2: "You let the world, which doesn't know the firs thing about living, tell you how to live." I was happy in my brick ranch, two car, two child, suburban home with a recreational vehicle to go full circle. And I enjoyed it, not going to lie. Further: "We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat." That is a pretty good description of how I lived. Doing what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. But today, I sit in India. Not just sitting all week, but sometimes. For a couple hours the last couple days, I did just sit outside the gate of CEM campus. Just sat. Watching India life go by. Rickshaws (Is that how you spell it?) filled with very random things - pipes, chickens, 17 people, a bed. And beautifully battered Indian people. No shoes some of them. And you can see just how hard life is here. But nearly each one looks at you (most likely because there aint too many white guys sitting on the side of the road), and nearly every one smiles. Or waves. Or tries out their English: "Hi" "Hello" "How are you, sir?" It is a joy to watch India go by. Back to the point. Had I continued down the path of doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it, I would not be sitting here watching India life go by. I would not be sitting in a training for missionary training for men and engaging in conversations with them. I wouldn't have driven a motorcycle with Naveen on the back laughing together. Because he asked if I wanted to drive. I said yes immediately. He was kind enough to take me down the back road that had much less traffic. And as I drove, I said to him "Naveen - I never imagined I would be driving a motorcycle in India during my lifetime." And we laughed. Then Naveen leaned in and said to me - "Yeah, well I never imagined that I would be riding on the back of my motorcycle with an American driving it, either." And we laughed some more. And we shared the fact that when we follow God, he certainly gives us some incredible things in our lives that we are certainly not worthy of. And that is my Ephesians lesson - thank you God for continuing to teach me new things through your word.