Every morning for the past week, I have woken up with a single memory: alone time. I imagine I am back on Jones Street in Savannah. The morning light shines through my windows into my air-conditioned room as I get out of my queen-size bed to start the day. I play Meghan Trainor on my iPhone as I walk down three flights of stairs to make some coffee. I open the kitchen door to find that my mom has already made some coffee for the day, and left me just enough for the perfect iced coffee with fat free hazelnut creamer (typical white girl). I reach in the pantry and decide I want oatmeal with coconut flakes, PB Fit powder, and bananas. I also find some honey and think to myself, “That would be a nice addition to the blend.” I grab my Nalgene and drink two of them this morning because I’m extra thirsty. I’m able to grab them straight from the sink, no need to filter water of course because this is America. I get to do all of these things ALONE, with no interruptions besides the occasional text messages which I can ignore because it’s “my” morning.
Back to reality, I look over to see my teammate Stephanie beside me and realize that I am in Myanmar. There is NO alone time. There is time that is spent with awesome people, where we get the privilege to eat oatmeal, bananas, and if we are lucky peanut butter. I didn’t bring my iPhone and reaching my friends and family isn’t always the easiest with the time difference. We are blessed with coffee given to us by our ministry host in Indonesia. Filtering water is now a daily habit unless it is provided in our lodging budget. We wake up in the same room, two in the bed and two on floor. Usually we are sweating because the air conditioning only circulates so far. It started to dawn on me that all of those things I had in Savannah were because God CHOSE to give me those things.
Being that it happened every single morning, I decided to talk to Stephanie about it. I realized that this memory of alone time wasn’t sad, but was creating a heart of thankfulness. I realized how many opportunities I had to engage in godly choices or to be passive, and I reverted to passivity. There were so many times in America where I chose to stay inside instead of enjoying the freedom given to me by my Father to run in shorts and a tank top in a beautiful park that is maintained every day by a cleaning crew THAT OUR GOVERNMENT PAYS FOR! Like how awesome is that! I also have the freedom to eat whatever my body is craving because God has blessed me with the financial needs and a country that has any kind of meal I can want within a five-minute drive. I am so incredibly blessed to have air conditioning in America, yet I complained all the time about being too cold. Every day I woke up and had my alone time in the morning. I had the opportunity to freely talk about Jesus to the people in the park that I passed on my runs, but I didn’t. What was I doing?! I had so many opportunities to engage life in America, yet I continued to choose passivity.
I do not write this blog to make you feel guilty or ashamed. I write this blog to spur you on! In America, we have so much freedom to create healthy habits, make godly choices, and proclaim the gospel WITHOUT hindrance. I would encourage you to start your day with “what does the Lord want from me for the day” rather than “what do I want in my oatmeal this morning”. Just do something (Kevin DeYoung)!
