Make sure to read Bed Bugs- Part 1 and Bed Bugs- Part 2 first!
Boom. Everything came to a head all at once. I found myself unable to restrain the words that had been buried deep inside me. I found myself listing off everything that was currently making my life a living hell. I feel gross and I can’t shower, my hair has bugs in it, I can’t leave the room, it’s raining outside so it’s going to be muddy tomorrow, the room is a disaster, I can’t be alone, it’s hot and I’m sweating, I have to practically sit on the ground to go pee, for the past 7 days all I’ve eaten is rice, my legs are hairy, my team doesn’t understand me, I’m sick of living in community, the bugs and water are attacking my bed, I have to shower with a bucket, I haven’t stopped sweating since I left California, I can’t go running here, we can only access internet once a week, I can’t walk through the room without ducking through 4 different laundry lines, and it’s been over a week since I’ve eaten any chocolate.
I mean honestly, can life get any worse? I was a little too caught up in, well, myself to check my watch, but I think the explosion lasted somewhere around 15 minutes. After spending ten of those minutes wiping wet bugs away from the sleeping area previously known as “mine,” I decisively climbed into bed, determined to fall asleep and forget everything for the next 8 or so hours. Before I had managed to plug up my ears with my iPod, which was clinging on to life itself, Sarah read a verse from her bible aloud: “Count it all joy my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” After audibly exclaiming, youcount it as joy when they’re in your bed; I actually began to ponder the verse within my mind.
Immediately my memory verse from the previous week popped into my mind. The words were unsolicited, yet I began to recite them in my head: …we rejoice in our sufferings. Knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…
Now hold up a minute. Rejoice in my sufferings? Rejoice in bugs and water taking over my bed? I began to wonder…suffering through these bugs means that I will produce endurance (i.e. patience, stamina). Okay, that makes sense, if I can live and sleep alongside these annoying little creatures, I will be enduring the situation. Got it. Next, endurance leads to character (i.e. quality, integrity). Hmm, so this will lead to a change in my character and my quality, because I have endured the situation and have grown from it. I guess that makes sense too. Now what about the last part? Character produces hope (expectation, anticipation). Hope in bugs? Well luckily this verse is about a lot more than bugs. It’s about waiting on what really matters, it’s exclaiming that ultimately the trials and tribulations of our life—bugs included—will produce endurance, which will produce character, which will produce hope in our Lord. Hope that God has our backs and is rooting for us, hope that God is our provider, our protector, our purpose, and our partner, hope that God’s promises are trustworthy, hope that we are awaiting something much more important and eternal than any of the struggles we are currently experiencing—bugs included.
More than that, we rejoice in bed bugs. Knowing that bed bugs produce endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
ROMANS 5:3-5
