COMMON GROUND
—
by Katherine Briggs and Sung Kyul Noh
“Therefore 격려하다 (encourage) one another and
서로를세워주다 (build each other up),
just as in fact you are doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV)
One of us moved from Texas, and one of us moved from South Korea. We, a writer and a ballerina, became roommates in Mississippi. Living in a “new world” with a roommate from a “different world” surprised us. We quickly realized we had a language barrier. Communicating took a long time and patience. We didn’t understand each other’s cultures, and discussing these deeper things felt impossible.
However, we shared belief in Jesus Christ as common ground.
One day, we decided to travel to an American swamp, something Sung Kyul (Susan) had never seen. We drove hours and stopped in the middle of nowhere.
“The GPS says this is the swamp! We are in the middle of the road?” Susan asked with confusion.
The drive was a lost cause, but we learned about each other. We exchanged Christian hip-hop and K-pop music. We took videos and laughed a lot.
We became friends. Susan shared tasty meals using rice, tuna, and seaweed. Katie learned that Koreans love spicy food, and hunted for the hottest hot sauce in the Western World (Dave’s Insanity Hot Sauce won!). Google Translate helped us use bigger words for deeper conversations. Susan taught Katie about something very close to her heart, South Korea and its relationship with North Korea. She explained how they used to be one country, and Christian missionaries first visited what is now North Korea. Today, the countries are divided, and many family members and Christians are trapped inside North Korea under terrible conditions and persecution.
One day, something hurtful occurred in Katie’s life. She opened up to Susan and explained the situation. We cried together. We encouraged one another in Christ and prayed. We become good friends, and shared more about our lives. We discussed how to have godly long-distance relationships with our boyfriends. We told each other about family troubles and upcoming life decisions.
Later, we moved back to our hometowns. Susan’s father was diagnosed with cancer, and the Lord led her to care for her family. God knew Katie would marry soon, and urged her to return to her family, too, before making this life change. We helped each other move and had lots of adventures in Texas and South Korea! We tried Texan barbeque and Korean kalbi. We wore traditional Korean hanboks and met each other’s family and friends. In South Korea, we visited an international church full of people from every continent worshiping Jesus together. This broadened our eyes to God’s ultimate plan in Revelation 15:4 (NIV), “…All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Today, we stand in South Korea and Illinois with half of Earth between us. We FaceTime weekly to share our lives and encourage each other. We are learning that true faith friendships are like triangles, pointing to each other and ultimately upward to God. God used our differences to highlight how we are alike in the most important things. Difficulties couldn’t stop us from walking in friendship and faith. We look forward to visiting each other in person again, and seeing what God does next.
Next Day Stretch
What is the difference between friendship and a faith friendship? God is! We treat each other differently when we love our neighbor as ourselves and turn the other cheek, like the Bible says. 1 Samuel 20:42 tells how David and Jonathan swore friendship with each other in the name of the Lord. They believed God’s plan for David to become king instead of Jonathan, and they protected each when King Saul, Jonathan’s father, wanted to kill David. That is a strong faith friendship to aspire to!
Bio
Katie and Susan love God, family, friends, ballet, and having adventures. Susan’s favorite American dessert is the root beer float, and Katie’s favorite Korean drink is grapefruit tea.
“Common Ground” originally appeared in Devozine’s Nov/Dec 2017 issue.
Photography by Sung Kyul Noh
