Learning Romanian Update

Learning Romanian has proven to be as tough as I originally assumed it would be. My teacher, Sorin, tells me that I understand the theory but have trouble applying it. Big Surprise!! That is the story of my life. Understanding a theory has never been difficult to me...it's the putting theories into practice that gets me at first. However, I've been practicing because I WANT/NEED to learn Romanian. It really is a beautiful language, of the Romance variety, but I've recently discovered that I know nothing about linguistics. The most difficult part of learning the language is that I have no idea what the terminology behind many directions means...this may make me dumb, but until recently I never truly understood what inflection, diacritics, breve...meant. As a result of my newly discovered linguistic ingnorance, I've been humbled...this is a good thing.

Being humbled is something I'm in no short supply of lately. Yesterday alone, I was humbled and equally wrecked by Oprah's Big Give, conversations with friends searching for their purpose, young kids raising their hands because they want to know Christ, and the incredible progress of a young girl fighting to recover from a car accident. How great is our God?? (Chris Tomlin music playing in my head but you don't have to "Sing with me") I see these moments as Grace because it's as if God is speaking to me through these things. It's been repetitive over the last week...between church, conversations, my devotions, books, and nature. I've been hearing that by expressing my faith and beliefs I'm letting my light shine for others to develop and express their passions. Awesome! It reminds me of the quote by Marianne Williamson that Nelson Mandela used in his speech after being elected President of South Africa.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.