Our new friend and coworker repeated this phrase about a half dozen times during our first weekend here.  Whether a cultural saying or a personal motto, the phrase stuck in our heads and we’ve repeated it several times this week as we find ourselves considering: why take the normal route when we can try the shortcut instead?

Our mission this week has been settling into our new home.  And we’ve faced the temptation to seek out the shortcuts.  Adjusting to sleep schedules (or not adjusting and simply sleeping til mid-morning); setting up phone contracts, bank accounts, and internet.  Finding grocery stores, coffee shops, butcher stores, and bakeries.  Adapting to the set (and yet fluid) schedule of public transportation.  Plenty of opportunities to seek out shortcuts.

Spoiler alert: Shortcuts in Kosova always take longer.

Everything is accomplished in its own due time, and seeking a shortcut has often elongated the process. This lesson has been learned with patience this week as we settle emotionally, not just physically, into a new culture. This week was set aside to work through details and to work through emotions. The past few months have been busy: graduation, marriage, moving overseas to establish a home and ministry together. That’s a lot of change on top of the stresses of living in a new culture. All of it good, but all of it hard.

We have both experienced this process of adjusting through previous international internships.  But setting up a new home brings its own unique challenges.  Annoying cultural practice? We can handle that for a couple of months. Spotty internet connection? Not a problem for a few weeks.  Interesting foods? Completely doable when we’re going home soon.  But living here? Potentially for years? You better believe we want to make the process of adjusting quicker and easier.

But as they say: Shortcuts are always longer.

We kept falling prey to the lie that shortcuts work. In the end, we cannot shortcut the processing of change, the sorrow of loss, the development of relationships, or the understanding of a new place that we are learning to call home.  We cannot shortcut our own emotions or the journey that it takes to learn from them.  We cannot shortcut the growing of our faith, our character, our trust, and our purpose

It’s been easy to feel like this week was a waste of time.  Easy to believe the lie that we could shortcut jet-lag, learning a new city, or the emotional process of change. But we can’t. In fact, the attempt always ends up taking longer.

Take the time.

Feel the feelings.

Embrace the tension.

That’s what we’re learning this week. Choosing the long, painful route has already begun to produce a refreshing peace and renewed sense of purpose.  We still have a way to go.  And it may seem like a waste of time, but we’re learning that the end result is worth the effort.