Expectations
When I committed a year to Japan, I wasn’t sure how to articulate what I expected, but I knew I wanted to see God work somehow. It was a bit of a surprise, then, to hear several people tell me not to expect to see anyone come to Christ during my time there. I appreciate their concern for me — they only didn’t want me to be too disappointed because the typical Japanese person needs to hear the gospel an average of 7 times before entering into relationship with God.1
I accepted that piece of advice because I respected the experience from which it came, but I don’t think I received it in the way it came across to me. If I didn’t expect God to do amazing and miraculous things (the highest of which would be granting eternal life to a person condemned to eternal death), what kind of god did I believe in? Why else would anyone interrupt a relatively comfortable life-as-usual? Instead of changing my expectations, I began to examine them. Continue reading…
Notes- Not sure where that statistic came from, but that’s what I’ve heard repeatedly regarding evangelism in Japan. [↩]
