Fruits of the spirit

Beyond memorizing Galatians 5's "fruits of the spirit" in a bit of a repetitive song during my elementary school years, I have put very little thought into their meaning. But during my semester studying abroad in Spain, the tune has played over in my head and found its way into the heart of my spiritual focus. I expected to learn a great deal during my study abroad experience. I knew I would gain some independence, improve my Spanish and hopefully become a better world citizen. But early on in my time here, I realized it would be incredibly spiritual in a way I did not expect. Everywhere I turned I seemed to find myself interacting with the beautiful nature of God. After a conversation with my roommate during our first month, the fruits of the spirit from Galatians 5 seemed to fit the spiritual expressions I was experiencing perfectly.

Love: We expect to receive love from our parents and friends, but I can't say that I expected to feel love from a woman paid to house and feed us in her home for a semester. However, in these five months, I have felt as much love from this woman as I often have felt from those close to me. Her gentle hands have worked each day to prepare our meals (no easy task considering two of my roommates are vegetarians while I neither like vegetables or seafood), clean our clothes, tidy our rooms and most of all be a much needed mother in the absence of ours. Filling our often discouraged selves with compliments about how much our Spanish has improved and teaching us about the ways of Spanish lives, this woman has become more than an ambassador of Spain to me and has rather become an ambassador of God's love.

Joy: On a daily basis in the United States I experience quite a bit of joy, but the joy always also comes with a heavy dose of stress and exhaustion as well. Here, free from the majority of my responsibilities, the joy of a very simple life has overwhelmed me. Hours spent in parks reading or walking in the uniquely beautiful allies of this city have filled me to the brim with the joy of God's creation.

Peace: From the day four students and I moved into the small apartment of our host couple, we realized peace might be hard to come by. The calm and quiet we used to have in our individual rooms back home felt far, far away almost instantly. We perhaps have not made it out of here without conflict, but then again, who could with only one bathroom to share between the five of us. We have, however, made it out with a better idea of how to keep the kind of peace among neighbors and friends that God expects of us.

Patience: I realize there are a great number of frustrating jobs out there in the world, but I can't imagine anything more frustrating than accepting the task of being a language teacher. Yet in all of my Spanish classes here, my teachers have been nothing but patient in every sense of the word. They are kind and understanding, quick to correct, but even quicker to compliment. Without their consistent patience, I doubt I would have improved my language skills at all.

Kindness: Within a week of being here, it became quite clear that there is some sort of code among study-abroad students that we are all in this together. We have taken responsibility for one another and have done what we can to help each out. The kindness displayed from one to the next is really quite extraordinary. I didn't expect to find such generosity from a bunch of people thrown together in one city from around the world, but that is exactly what I have found.

Goodness: In the U.S. I found it was quite easy to get bogged down by headline after headline in the news about some horrible atrocity committed around the world. Pretty soon, exhausted from not only the news but my political science classes as well, I started to doubt the goodness of the world. My time here has taught me better. In every country I have visited since being here I have seen the goodness that is innately in every human being. Whether providing my friends and me with directions or chatting with us about our travels, people here in Europe have reminded me of the goodness the world has been filled with by God.

Faithfulness: Faithfulness is perhaps one of the hardest fruits of the spirits to live by simply because it is so hard to trust in something we cannot see, but choosing to study abroad left me with no choice. I have had to trust in the Lord: trust that I would be safe, trust that I would not be bogged down by homesickness, and trust that I would find happiness in such a foreign place. As God has proved once again to be faithful to me in these areas, I have learned the value of placing my fears in God and matured in my level of faithfulness.

Gentleness: There isn't much about the Spanish society that is gentle. People tell it like it is, no sugar attached. Perhaps nothing exemplifies this better than their famous form of dance: flamenco. As one of my roommates and I walked into our first flamenco dance lesson, I quickly learned this for myself. The abrupt movements and steps seemed so as far as could be from something that was gentle. But over the months I have spent in the studio, I have seen the gentle nature behind it, the care in each twist of the wrist, and more than anything, the tender emotion expressed by the dance. Perhaps this is similar to the way we observe God, at first incomprehensibly bold until we break down God's nature to reveal God's gentle love.

Self-control: And lastly, self-control I have seen it's about so much more than controlling one's actions and decisions. Instead, it also encompasses the attitude inside of you. I have learned that it is only myself that controls the outlook I have on situations and that it is that outlook that often determines the quality of the experience. A less-than-clean hostel, a disappointing Spanish grade or an upsetting email from home should never impede the overall glory there is in each day.

Through these people, realizations and experiences I have grown more than I could have imagined. My focus this semester has been to take these fruits, shown in the nature of God, and apply them to my personal life as the Bible calls us to do. My prayer is that these times will never be far from my heart, and that I will continue to live a better life, closer to the Lord as my understanding of the fruits of the spirit continue to deepen.