For the bus, I had the “Next Bus” app to tell me how long it was until the next scheduled bus arrived. Emphasis on scheduled, because well, they were never quite on time. For the World Race, I know that as the calendar moves towards the end of the month, I am getting closer to my next country and ministry. Once spring officially gets here, you know it’s only a matter of days before the cold winds turn warm and the daffodils start to bloom.
But in other aspects of my life, there’s no countdown to when the awaited for thing will arrive. Which really drives me crazy sometimes, and makes me exceptionally impatient. I don’t want to have snappy bad attitude, but I continuously find myself reacting poorly when I feel hurt or offended. Still single at 32? Where is the countdown for when I will meet my husband? What is the app for God revealing to me what I will be doing after the Race.
I spent this past week at debrief. While there my squad mentor spoke on a project she had done while on her Race. She started a gratitude journal. Where she would write down 1,000 things she was thankful for. It started off easy, because it’s easy to be thankful for things like a soft bed, a warm shower, and reliable internet. But once those ran out, she started having to dig deeper for things to be thankful for. Things like being thankful that she could hear her roommate snoring because that meant her roommate was sleeping and getting oxygen. And having to clean the bathroom meant that she should be thankful because she had an indoor bathroom to use and didn’t have to use a squatty potty.
Having a heart of gratitude in all things, not just the easy things, isn’t something that comes naturally to me. But I hope that doing a gratitude journal will open the door to me learning to be patient in the waiting without a sign. That the growth will be happening under the surface and just like the daffodils will bloom with a burst of beauty that brings hope of better things to come.
