i'd be a total liar if i said that life was easy most of the time. many times i chalk it up to living in a foreign country and having to deal with living here, but i really think that even if i lived in the states it would probably be similar if not the same. i like to assign blame and put my hardships onto someone or something else in order to diminish my responsibility or to ignore the lessons that i ought to learn.

i should view that challenges of life more in terms of what God is teaching me rather than how i can avoid them to maximize the pleasure of this life. otherwise i'm just missing the point of his discipline and training.

this morning, i was going for my morning walk at about 6am. i wasn't paying too much attention, but i heard the sound of a car accident. it didn't sound too bad, but then i saw that it was a car and a motor scooter. the driver of the motor scooter was thrown off and was on the ground. i ran over to the scene, only to be completely helpless. the guy was in a lot of pain, bleeding from his mouth, and not moving so much. the driver of the car called an ambulance, and some other japanese folk around were asking the guy if he was OK. he didn't respond to them.

i really had no idea what to do. i felt so useless. but then i knelt down beside the guy's head, and told him in japanese that i was a christian, and that i was going to pray for him. he motioned with his hand in a way that said 'go ahead.' i prayed out loud in japanese for the first time. my words were clumsy at best, but i prayed that God would protect his life, and cover the man in his grace and love and power.

a few minutes after i finished, the police came and asked me about what happened. i didn't see the accident, so i wasn't much use for them. the ambulance was coming, and i told the man on the ground that it was coming. he motioned with his hand that he understood. the ambulance crew took the man on a stretcher and put him into the ambulance. i helped pick up a few pieces of the scooter, and helped the police officer move it.

afterwards, the police took my name and number and told me if they had questions they would call me. i felt pretty useless, but i was glad that God prodded me to pray for the man.

later i went with madoka to the police box to see if they had any information about the man's condition. they didn't, but they said no news is good news. if it was really serious then they would call all the people that were there, they said. it made me feel a lot better.

it was a surreal experience, and it's one that i never hope to repeat. but it definitely made me think about how i've spent my time recently, and how i need to focus more on the things that God has laid on my heart. i need to spend more time with the japanese language for unexpected situations. i need to prepare my heart more and more for hard times that will come.