Same Same

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit.” II Cor. 3:18 NAS

I will always remember those first feelings of culture shock when we moved to Thailand fifteen years ago. It was the summer of 1999 just before the Y2K scare and the global challenges that we were told would change the world. Fortunately, it turned out to be the biggest non-event in history. In fact, in most of the countries like Thailand, during that time, the year 2000 had already happened and those of us from the West were just catching up. Never the less, we like many others, were advised to make sure we had some cash, fresh water, a few candles, and matches. We did and we were fine. In fact, we used those matches and candles for years that followed every time there was a power outage. How funny!

Looking back on those years, even though Debbie and I were seasoned missionaries, the adjustments to a new culture and language was a challenge like no other. Josiah was eight years old and just about ready to start third grade. We had left everything that was familiar to us: Family, friends, life in America as we knew it to embrace the will of God to reach a people different than anyone we had ever met. The sights, the smells, the food – the heat, the weather … so different. Even though we tried to be brave, we found ourselves looking for things that were familiar to us, only to find that it wasn’t the same, at least not like we thought. Through the years we learned to adjust to the changes that we faced one by one. Just because something is not the same, doesn’t make it wrong, just different.

One day while walking through a mall near our home, there was a Thai person wearing a T Shirt that said: Same Same. On the backside it said: But different. To this day it makes me laugh every time I see it.

The same can be said in our walk with the Lord. According to the above verse, we are going through a process of change, of growing into His likeness and image. A transformation if you will. And through this process, there are times when we look around and try to identify with something that we are familiar with only to find that we’ve changed! Or that we don’t ‘fit’ that norm anymore, that we’ve moved on to a new place in the things of God and that we’re not the same person that we used to be. Same Same on the outside but, different on the inside. “As He is so are we in this world.” I John 4:17c

~ Dan Ecker