Arriving in Myanmar

My travel to Yangon has gone very well. I got a decent night sleep last night in Bangkok. Unfortunately my suitcase didn't make it here to Yangon, but I have my necessary teaching materials, and they expect that the bag will come in the morning (hopefully before class so I won't be teaching in blue jeans that have been worn a few days...).

Here is a view out our hotel window.

I am sharing a room with the instructor who is teaching the morning class.

While traveling, I've been thinking through Psalm 46. The opening verse is quite interesting:
"God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble." I'm struck by the word "very." What does it mean to be "very present"?

Perhaps it is to contrast with "sort of present." I've been "sort of present" in conversations with people before ... I was there but my mind was elsewhere. And I can imagine God, who is omnipresent, "sort of" being with me in the sense that He is everyone. But sometimes people have said that is something is always there, in some sense it might never really be there.

So God is really with us in trouble ... He fully knows us and our trouble. His heart goes out to those with worries or fears.

And clearly, in the incarnation, Jesus is *really* with us by becoming human. And Jesus wept when Lazarus died. He was really there. Not just aware.

So God is really with me. The question is, am I really with God? Perhaps that is why verse 10 calls us to "Be still and know that I am God." To really be with God, I need to slow myself down, to still myself, so that I can be fully aware of God, conscious of his presence and His care. And I know that I have to slow down other thoughts in order to be more aware of God.

So my hope is that I will really be here with the people I teach. And my prayer is that God will be very present with us. And my prayer is that God will be very present with my family in Michigan and in Jamaica!

The good news is, I know He is. And for that I am very thankful!