I’m not sure if you’re anything like me, but in my personal opinion, life would be ten hundred million times better with a soundtrack.
So.
During camps, we start out by playing group games. The game of choice has become the Cambodian version of monkey in the middle. It’s fairly simple: we stand in a circle and two or three monkeys try to intercept the plastic ball we toss over their heads.
Here’s the catch: on my team are two guys who have really hit it off with our male missionary contact. I’m not sure how often you play sports with guys in their twenties, but let’s just say, they like to get aggressive, and teenage boys look up to them, so it’s a whole room full of aggressive boys and screeching middle school aged girls.
Oh, and by the way, this game has gotten longer and longer every time we play, culminating in this afternoon’s session, where it went on for an hour and fifteen minutes.
Suffice to say, I’m surprised I haven’t ripped all my hair out.
Yesterday, due to a random fluke (called Teacher Natalie had forgotten to have choreography ready to teach before camp started- oops), there was music playing as the game started, so we left it on as we started passing the ball around. Somewhere in between the kids missing the ball even more because they were trying to bop their heads to the beat and me being swept away in favorite song after favorite song, I realized the game wasn’t so bad when there was music.
As soon as I realized I wasn’t borderline suicidal, I looked around at the kids.
They were having the time of their lives.
So while I’m standing there, internally fuming and counting down the seconds until the wretched game ended, I had completely missed out on the whole point: this isn’t about me.
Who cares if I hate the game?
Who cares if it’s a ministry that isn’t my favorite (which, incidentally, isn’t the case)?
Who cares if serving the Lord for the rest of my life is hard, or frustrating, or lonely, or long?
It’s not about me.
And it’s time for me to get over myself.
Luckily, I had a sweet sound track to get me out of my bad attitude. Thanks, Mika, for reminding me to love today.
