Adventures with an Air Mattress

(Katie)

Its been a while........since our last post we:

• Spent a week in Minnesota
• Celebrated our 1 year anniversary with 300 family members & friends eating gelato and dancing
• Saw U2 in concert
• James bare foot water skied for the first time
• Thanks to our family and friends' generosity we Pottery-Barreled our apartment and got entirely outfitted at REI for an upcoming Fall adventure!
• I started my 2nd year as a Graduate Resident Assistant (GRA) at Wheaton College

As I transitioned from Summer mode back into my job, I felt surprisingly comfortable. I've graduated from being the person perpetually lost on campus trying to find different buildings to successfully navigating my way around campus. I no longer have to look up each Residence Life acronym (SRC, BGC) but they are now part of my daily language. Our home is established. Its my refuge. I also no longer feel tossed to and fro by the rhythm of Residence Life, but have grown in my ability to be adaptable and available. It feels good to feel competent and comfortable. Perhaps too good, which is perhaps why God needed to remind me that I'm still desperately dependent on Him. This is where the air mattress pictured above enters the story.

The day I successfully cleaned, organized and Pottery-Barreled our entire apartment, I learned that we had to move out the next day for an entire two weeks. Summer projects in our Residence Hall resulted in the loss of air conditioning, hot water, and electricity for two-weeks. In one phone conversation, I went from feeling settled-in to nomadic. I had one day to pack the essentials for our move. As a high J on Myers-Briggs, I don't do unplanned change very well, so all I could pray was "God, HELP!"

As I packed, I found myself looking at some pictures of James in Africa, sitting with some orphans in the dirt, each person full of joy. In contrast, I was sitting on the comfortable carpet of my apartment, anxious and overwhelmed. Compared to the reality of the beautiful faces in that photo, James and I would have AC the next two-weeks to survive the 90 degree heat wave. We would have the comforts of electricity and hot water. These three realities are more than what 90% of the world lives with.

How do we cultivate thanksgiving in the midst of circumstances that disrupt our sense of comfort? How do we open our eyes to see the reality of the big picture, when we are stuck in the details?

My husband models that thanksgiving is a choice. We can choose joy and a ready sense of humor as we enter into the adventure of eating with plastic silverware and sleeping on an air mattress..even when the pump dies half-way through trying to inflate it =-) We can choose to receive this invitation to learn that God is ultimately our Comfort and our Shelter. Whatever unforeseen circumstances you find yourself in this upcoming week, I pray that you would enter into them with thanksgiving and joy! Perhaps, you will discover, as I did this morning, that God provides all that we need AND contentment and peace is available through Christ in all of our circumstances...we must choose to receive it!