The Strawberries

Some days on the Race are just hard for no real reason.
 
Actually, it’s a hundred little reasons all sandwiched together tighter than Africans on a matatu.  These build up and build up until you find yourself crying into hysterics. You wake up beneath a mosquito net covered in unidentifiable bites.  You didn’t eat breakfast because you saw the local cat eating its own poop and the smell compounded with your already queasy stomach.  You’ve had a headache for three days straight and really just want to hug your Mama.  On top of that, for whatever reason, your team decides to climb the local 14,000 foot mountain to see some waterfall that’s supposed to be pretty great or something.  In any case, by about 8am you are exhausted, nauseous, dehydrated and now, hiking.  And maybe, if you’re anything like me, you’ll get about three-quarters of the way up before you stop, and say to your incredibly patient teammate:

It doesn’t have anything to do with the actual physical mountain you’re climbing.  It’s the emotional one you’ve been climbing for the last ten months.  And really, it’s a rarity for you to have such a breakdown, so that’s a plus, right?  It’s not like you’ve been one of those people who cry or make a fuss about everything.  So this breakdown is allowed, right?  It’s okay to sit in your bad mood for a day or two… or all month, right?  If it’s only this one time, this one month, it’s okay.  After all, this crazy journey is almost over anyway.  It’s only 52 days to home anyway, right?  Just focus on getting home.  Just survive this month.

Right?

There’s a team leader on our squad who has wisdom for situations such as these.  Jeremy’s advice had something to do with living in the day God’s given you instead of looking to the future.  Tomorrow will take care of itself and all that.  He suggests that we should look for “the strawberry”, or the sweet thing that the LORD gives us every day to show us how much He loves us.

I thought about this about 30 seconds after looking at Brandon and saying that I couldn’t do it anymore.  He’d very calmly told me that we needed to take a rest.  So I stopped and took a deep breath and asked the LORD to show me my strawberry. 

This hike up the mountain is going to be over in a blink, I realized.  I don’t want to spend all my time wishing I was home.

About ten minutes later, the LORD gave me this:

There, on the side of a Tanzanian mountain, was a man selling the most delicious strawberries, red and black rasberries , blackberries and gooseberries.  We literally bought him out of everything.  And as we devoured mountains of this incredible surprise—I haven’t had berries since leaving the States ten months ago—I realized that our God is not only good, not only faithful, but also full of a wonderful sense of humor.  Today, my much needed “strawberry” was the ability to look out over a stunning waterfall set miles in the Tanzanian mountains and to eat the most delicious berries I’ve ever tasted. 

He is a God who loves to give His children good gifts.  He does give us the desires of our hearts.  His is a heart full of love and empathy for us.  He knows when we’re hurting or struggling or wanting to go home.  And it’s in those times when we have to look for the strawberries He’s trying to give us, because there is always something there from Him to remind us that we’re loved.  There’s always something good because His character is goodness. 

There’s always more.  There’s always more than enough.