Really though. Excessive. Unhealthy. Too much.
Peanut butter has been in my life for as long as I can remember. I can recall times as a child where my dad would hand me the infamous silver spoon, piled high with said creamy goodness to make the perfect afternoon or late-night snack. (we cleverly named it peanut butter spoon. Patent pending.) My mom’s favorite food is peanut butter toast. It’s a staple we always had in my house.
Then I left home for 9 months and now I’m a month in to my established little life in Swaziland. We, as a squad, have enjoyed many memorable moments here; the one time we didn’t have power, the one time that the whole “no power thing” turned into a month and probably more of not having power (we’re actually loving it though) and all sorts of experiences from learning native dances to halfway watching movies in our bunks (refer to the no power thing mentioned a few words prior to this. Laptops don’t stay charged forever!) and observing so many ways the Lord is speaking and moving here in this beautiful little country. That being said- the amount of peanut butter I’ve consumed in the past few weeks is probably (actually, definitely) is alarming.
When we first arrived in Swaziland, we had peanut butter and jelly for dinner. After four days of traveling LITERALLY across the globe, this was the perfect “welcome to your new home for three months” meal a very exhausted girl with a very heavy backpack could’ve asked for. Delicious. Probably the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich I’d ever eaten. (although, I do very clearly remember one I had in 7thgrade for lunch that definitely deserves an honorable mention in this blog.) Then, we woke up the next morning and had more peanut butter with our oatmeal, and more pb & j’s later. And then again, and then again, and then… again.
Don’t get me wrong- even still to this day, I wake up and look forward to the refreshment that that sandwich offers after numerous hours of playing with all kinds of kids at our care points where we do ministry every week. It’s just so funny how something I had become so used to and something I was comfortable with seeing had quickly become something that I needed to get me through my day to day moments.
I think a lot about my relationship with God before coming on the race. We were good; super good actually. We talked a lot and he taught me so many new things in my time of preparation before I launched and I was so content with where we were that I even naively began to think it couldn’t get much better than it already was. Something I’m quickly learning is that God always wants to grow me and show me new things about His character; I’m never going to reach a state of completion or true contentment until I’m dwelling with Him forever, and that is so exciting. There is always more. Sometimes, like in my present situation, it takes going out to the literal bush of Africa and having comforts and contact stripped away for a little while to begin to know and understand true and deep dependence on the promises of God- is He really there? Is He still moving? Is He still performing miracles and transforming lives?
The answer is yes, and sometimes, it takes a new perspective to see all of this from an eternal angle.
So, my encouragement? Look from a new perspective and find the ways God is working in whatever your situation may be; I promise that He is. Turn off that phone, sit down with a spoon full of peanut butter, and ask God where He’s working. He’s doing something new in you, and amazingly, we’re invited to participate in whatever that is that He’s doing. Even in the mundane. Even in the everyday. Even in the familiar, and even in what you’re used to seeing and experiencing every day- He’s doing a new thing.
*big thanks to peanut butter and mykayla munley and the holy spirit for inspiring this blog post. yes & amen.
**also, this post was originally written on September 26th, 2018.
***also, remember today that you’re loved beyond comprehension by the creator of the universe. High five a stranger. Tell somebody a knock knock joke. Do your thing. Spread the love.
