Trisha Mugo

A Bangkok peanut salesman. Photo by Tord Remme, via Fllickr.

Ten years ago, while sitting in the breakroom of at work, I overheard a colleague tell a bad joke. I only remember the sophomoric humor ended with the punchline “Bangkok.”

I remember laughing a little too late and worrying that this joke-teller, a senior copyeditor at the newspaper, might doubt my knowledge of geography.

Since I billed myself as a “global citizen,” this bothered me.

I studied international relations in college, made sushi with my Japanese roommates, and waited tables alongside students from Nepal, Pakistan, Lebanon, and all across the Middle East.

When work slowed at the restaurant, we quizzed each other with games like: “Name the capital cities that begin with the letter ‘B.’”

Brussels, Budapest, Buenos Aries. I don’t know if I would have listed Bangkok back then.

I never dreamed I would visit Thailand’s capital city, home of the “reclining Buddha,” the Grand Palace, and a whole lot of spicy street food. Isn’t it just like God to take us to places we don’t plan to go?

God recently opened the door for me to teach pastors how to write and publish in their native languages. In June, I’ll travel to RREACH’s Global Proclamation Congress, where more than 5,000 pastoral trainers will gather from all over Asia.

Through two seminars, I’ll pass on my passion for good writing and God’s Word, and how these go hand in hand.

I work for a nonprofit that publishes Bible resources in languages that need them most. Authenticity Book House is like the Wycliffe of Bible commentaries.

Through ABH, I’ll help give away thousands of Bible commentaries to pastors who need resources.

Did you know 95 percent of pastors worldwide receive no pastoral training whatsoever? That’s 450 pastors with no training to every 1 who receives the gift of education.

Would you consider praying for me as I travel to Bangkok?

Would you pray for strategic partnerships with editors and translators?
And for us to give away 1 million free downloads.

If you would like to consider supporting this Bangkok trip financially, a gift of any amount is appreciated. You can give here, but please add my name and “Thailand mission trip” to the notes section.

I would love to hear if you’ve ever been in or near Thailand. What was it like?

Has God ever taken you somewhere you thought you’d never go?

Grand Palace, via Flickr, Creative Commons.

Water taxis in Bangkok, via Flickr, Creative Commons.

For years I thought I could finally relax, finally rest and feel satisfied once my world was in the order.

Once my house was cleaned . . .

Once the kids were in bed . . .

Once we could save a little money . . .

Once our careers really got of the ground . . .

Once I attained my ideals I thought the emptiness—the gnawing hollowness and discontentment would fade. I thought once I achieved “enough,” I’d be satisfied, but that day never arrived. Share on X

I finally did get my house cleaned, and the kids in bed, and a little money saved. Our careers really began to fly, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing something.

Meanwhile, I had dinner to cook and soccer practices to cart the kids to. We bought a house in the suburbs, the kind of neighborhood I never thought I’d live in, with a lake and manicured lawns. Time slipped by and I kept sensing the hollow feeling, that I was meant for more and made for more.

I totally misinterpreted this restlessness. I pushed myself to produce and do more. And boy did I have things to do with the diapers and dishes stacking up. And then, in what must have been an act of insanity, I volunteered my husband and I to take over the youth group at our church. In the flurry of activity and then a new baby, I kept coming up empty. I knew the answer was in Jesus. Of course I did.

But I was Eve staring at that piece of forbidden fruit, dissatisfied with the known. Always wanting more.

The Path to Lasting Satisfaction

That first sin crippled mankind’s ability to live loved by destroying mankind’s relationship with God. The world has never been the same.

I picture sin’s entrance into the world a bit like the movie The Wizard of Oz, only in reverse. When Dorothy reaches the way to Oz, the yellow brick road, her world transforms from black and white into a Technicolor dream. Sin, on the other hand, left humans in grainy black and white, the absence of God’s presence.

Sin’s devastation wreaked havoc on the union Adam and Eve shared with God. It ended their strolls their the garden. I can’t imagine the regret Adam lived with, the gaping absence of God’s nearness. The pain he must have suffered the remainder of his life. How do you live in harmony with all of nature, wielding the greenest thumb of all time, only to battle with the ground by the sweat of your brow?

To know Love himself, but then lose intimacy with him? To go from ultimate satisfaction, finding identity in God alone, but to have that ripped away only to face frustration and discontentment?

Imagine winning an all-inclusive vacation package, complete with decadent food, expensive drinks, and an opulent suite, only to be kicked out of the resort. A few days later, you sit hungry and alone, eating leftovers out of a restaurant’s trash can on the other side of the island. You remember the taste of the creme brulee, the bubbly feeling of champagne in your mouth.

When you’ve tasted perfection how do you return to bland food?

The ache for more that we all experience is the echo of eternity written on our hearts (Ecc. 3:11). Share on XPerfect Love continues to woo us—the dissatisfied and disappointed, the forbidden-fruit eaters, the fail-ers and the unfulfilled. We don’t pursue God without him first pursuing us. We love God because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). No one comes to the Father unless the Spirit first draws them (John 6:44). God invites us to seek fulfillment in him.

He longs to rescue us from eating out of the trash heap so we can be his guests at a never-ending feast.

Author’s note: The above is an excerpt from my work in progress, a book about chasing contentment in God.

Bound for Bangkok

The Myth of “One Day”