Japan, I was enchanted to meet you.
Around August and September, I was debating if I should push through with buying a Taylor Swift concert ticket for her Tokyo stop. It was just a few weeks after my Seoul trip (my first solo travel abroad) so I was still “recovering” from my expenses. After weeks of thoughtful consideration and prayers, I decided I'd go. And I'm so grateful I did.
“Go for it.”
I wasn’t sure if it was really Him…because it also just might be me wanting to see Taylor Swift’s live performances of songs I grew up with. It was also a practice on discernment if I was hearing from God and yielded to His will (and not my own desires and feelings).
It’s like He opened my ears and heart to a new level of communing with Him. Through this trip, God revealed how mindful He is of me. How much He wanted to release me from unnecessary load I didn't know I was carrying.
He spoke to me through new Japanese food discoveries, through helpful strangers, through the barren trees of winter, and the early bloomers of spring that's just around the corner.
I also met a photographer who spoke warmly of Japan and its culture albeit being a sojourner there. I observed the way groups of friends and families gathered in parks as they enjoyed the cold winds of winter, while anticipating cherry blossom season.
It's a beautiful privilege to be able to go beyond the borders of my home country and walk on new land.
I went through a few too many misadventures during my last solo trip. All the steps I accumulated walking around from city to city started to unravel worries and fears that were keeping me from being fully enjoying the present.
I guess solo trips really are good for the soul. I wonder where He’ll invite me to next?
Wherever that is, I’m keeping this verse close:
Psalm 121:8, “The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”
Onwards, to healing.
Watch the montage I made from all the “glimmers” from God I witnessed in Japan—
This trip really went from wanting to hear Taylor sing the lines of her song, Enchanted… to me being truly delighted by the way God moved all throughout the trip. I praise Him for His provision, protection, and all the He opened me up to.
