1 Swede, 1 Singaporean.
Both our worlds collided in 2004, and merged in 2009.
Our base is now Sweden, and our centre always Him.
Propelling towards an insanely exciting future!
This is one rare occasion that I'm feeling pensive, since I came to Sweden.
Maybe it's a combination of many things building up - missing family and friends, missing ministry in EAG, missing being able to understand what's going on around me, missing English, missing English songs (not missing the weather tho :)).
But I'm really beginning to feel like an outsider here. Me, the 'over-planner' even by Singaporean standards, being here in free and easy Sweden, where most events are spontaneously put together (read: last minute), and I'm asked to go with the flow. I understand spontaneity, I know it's fun to have, to not have to plan every single thing. It just seems to go against the grain of who I am, all I've been taught on discipline, on 'if you fail to plan, you plan to fail', on how being last minute is super inconsiderate on others.
I am really feeling the clash of cultures here. I don't think there's a right or wrong here, just as how the way certain things are done in Singapore would be very much frowned upon here in the West.
I just feel so displaced.
But I don't want to whine. God has told me in His Word to 'be all things to all men, that I might save some', and I want to do that. Yet I'm trying to balance that with holding on to the values and principles also present in the Word, not compromising on everything for the sake of pleasing man or going along with the flow, but to please and fear God first, above all.
I think - no, I know, the one thing that's keeping me grounded here, that's keeping me from running away, is the sure knowledge that I'm taken care of by an UNCHANGING God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, the same in Singapore and in Sweden, and who is faithful to the end.
