Indepedence Day

Notice: The length of this blog will be determined by the sleeping habits of one Frankie Malakai and one Jubilee Song. Both are asleep at the same time. Hallelujah amen, hallelujah amen!

Today is the Bolivian Independence Day. At her school Jubilee will march in honor of the "patria" with all of her other classmates and as they march they will be singing loudly and boisterously the Bolivian national anthem as she has already demonstrated all day yesterday at home. At the lunch table she told me that she was Bolivianita, Malakai was Boliviano and so were mommy and daddy. To be honest I didn't know how to answer her or respond. You see, the invetable is happening with Jubilee and as a father I am finding myself a little unprepared and reluctant. She is forming her own identity and I recognize already that it will be an identity that is far different from my own. She is not growing up in Santa Fe or Denver as I did nor is she growing up in Dallas or Houston as her mommy. She and her brother are growing up in a place that on one level is home for me but at the same time will probably always maintain a certain level of the unknown for Katie and I.

Yesterday, I was watching a movie we have seen before called "Bend It Like Beckham" which is a story about a teenage girl who growing up in England but whose parents have immigrated there from India. The girl Jess (Jasmindey) is constantly torn between her parents' close-knit community of immigrants from India and the mainstream English society she is struggling to understand and become a part of. I had seen the movie before but this was the first time I watched the movie and identified with Jess's parents. Sitting in the middle class English living room, the father with a traditional headress and mother in traditional silk clothing trying desperately to understand their daughter's world I somehow saw Katie and I here in the kitchen of our apartment listening to Jubilee belt out a song we were never taught. Were we to ever learn the song it would mean something different for us anyway. For Jubilee and eventually for Malakai they will sing the song as Bolivians just as Katie and I would sing and hear the Star Spangled Bannerwith our hands proudly across our chests.

On one hand I am a little sad to realize that Jubilee and Malakai will undoubtedly form an identity vastly different from their parents. On the other hand isn't that part of the challenge of parenthood for any parents? Even for parents and children who grow up in the same town or same house, isn't the difference between a generation immense enough to stir up the same emotions as I feel raising my children in a foreign country?

In light of this particular instance my mind is drawn to a comforting and strenthening verse Paul wrote in I Corinthians 9 and verses 22 and 23, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. " I do not quote the verse in a martry-like self describing way yet I quote it to guide myself towards a more Christ-like approach that I recognize I do not always acheive. What I know in my head but what is hard sometimes for my heart is to remember that for me to become all things to all men my entire family must also do so.

In closing I am reminded of Paul's words to the Phillippians in chapter 3 and verse 20, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ". This is a verse I often cling to as I face this world with my family walking the fence between two very backyards hestitantly watching my children lean towards one side that I do not know. It is a truth I believe we can all cling to, to know that our true citizenship is not determined by stern looking consulate officers but rather by a loving Father who sacrificed the ultimate to scoop us up in His arms and shower abundant blessing upon us. Praise God that He allows us to enter into to His presence and glimpse together a glorious future when our common love for Christ will truly unite us all!