Last week we had debrief, which is a time for our squad to get together and relax, hear from AIM staff and encourage each other. We all went to Nairobi and stayed at a hostel, worshipped and went out to eat at restaurants that served American-ish food. I saw Sherlock Holmes 2 with another squadmate, which was absolutely amazing. If you haven’t seen it yet, see it.
I came out of a rough month in India – team changes blew my mind, and not in a good way. I missed my old Perisseuo family, I missed familiarity and I missed people who knew my back story. I was looking forward to debrief so I could see my old teammates and recoup from a difficult month.
Back in India, we went to the beach and my camera got hit with a wave. Even after a few days of drying out, it wasn’t working properly, so I made plans to take it in for repair in Nairobi, hoping against hope it would be able to be fixed without the need for me to sell my right arm to pay for it.
Our first full day of debrief, I headed into city center with two old teammates to take my camera in. It was an emotional few hours for me; dropping off my baby, my pride and joy, for a few days was like leaving my child at the hospital.
And just when it couldn’t get any worse, on the way home from dropping off my sick camera, my purse got stolen. Yep, right outside of a supermarket in the middle of Nairobi. My money, passport, driver’s license and credit card were gone, along with my really cute purse that I bought in Kathmandu – one of my favorite souvenirs so far.
So, to recap:
team changes
broken camera
stolen purse
I came back to the hostel after dropping off my camera and without my purse and cried and cried and cried. “What did I do, God? Why are you allowing these things to happen to me?”
Then I put on one of my favorite songs as of late: “God of the Angel Armies “by Jonathan David and Melissa Helser. I love it because of one part in the middle of the song where Melissa Helser just says “thank you” over and over again to God as her voice cracks with tears.
I just want to say thank You
Thank You for coming up over my mountain and rushing down into my valley
Thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You
You didn’t have to come, but You did, and I’m thankful, Lord
Thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You
Thank You for coming, thank You for loving
Thank You for coming, thank You for loving.
It’s so simple, isn’t it? Saying thank you. We do it a million times a day for a million things, big and small.
But can we still be thankful when crap happens to us, when life gets hard, when we just don’t understand why all these crappy things seem to be piling onto us? When all we can see is evil and sadness and frustration surrounding us?
But even when we are going through truly terrible times, things that are much worse than a stolen purse or broken camera or team changes, we have to remember that life is a gift. It’s a gift. The world we live in, with its flaws and crime and purse stealing people, is beautiful. It’s good and it was made for us.
And Jesus died for us. He did and it’s amazing. We lose sight of its wonderful-ness because most of us have heard it since we were children and it lost its power to strike awe in us long ago. And then we became adults and life got hard and there are bills to pay and day to day stuff that blocks our vision of the truly incredible love that our Father has for us and the gift He gave us in His Son. The gift He gave us in our life.
Never lose sight of the wonder that is being alive. Of waking up each day, of the things He has given You and the people who love you. Even when life sucks, say thank you. Not in a snarky, “please, sir, may I have another” that isn’t really thankfulness, but anger. Be thankful and say thank you to Him knowing that these trials are fleeting. That there is a picture so much bigger than our hardships. That purses can be replaced and credit cards can be canceled.
Thank Him for dying on the cross and for loving us even today when we forget so easily what an incredible miracle that is.
