In my family when we sit down to eat dinner instead of saying a prayer, we say what we are thankful for. Now there are rules, everyone has to say something different and you can't say something easy like you're thankful for the food. Even when we have guests and the table is crazy full, everyone still has to go around and say what they are thankful for. Honestly, I love saying what I am thankful for, but I love even more hearing what other people are thankful for. I cherish the insight it gives to what they are feeling and what they have experienced that day.
During launch these past few days they gave us a list (yay!) of five things that would make our World Race successful if we followed them. The third point was having a positive attitude. Our speaker suggested putting the "thankful game" into action to achieve this when everyone was beyond their point of happily smiling. The game is simply people naming off what they are thankful for in that moment, and it eventually turns to smiles and laughter as people name crazier and crazier things to be thankful about.
When I hear this, all I can think to myself is that this game is so right up my ally. I got this one in the bag. No more than 6 hours later, I am in the shower with all my roommates cozy in their beds, and all the sudden the light in the shower starts dumping water on me. It was like a second shower head but without a nozzle to turn it off. I hollered for one of my roommates, Candice, to come take a look at it while I hustled away from the precipitating ceiling. We called the hotel desk and they sent someone in who informed us that we needed to switch rooms NOW. I'm not sure if you saw my pack before I left, but imagine 4 of those exploded into a hotel room and then being told to gather them up and move them down the hall. It was like someone was playing a cruel joke on us. It took until the maintenance man came back and told us that we really did have to move for reality to set in. As we were dragging our bags down the hall (mind you it is close to 2am at this point) someone starts the thankful game. "I'm thankful our stuff didn't get wet"; "I'm thankful nothing was on fire"… Then started the laughter and some perspective; the fact that this happened to us was hilarious, and ridiculous. Our new room is exactly the same (set up, pictures and everything) as the last one, we're just a little down the hall. While I was completely shocked that a ceiling could leak so aggressively, I think it was a little wake up call for me. Even in a hotel in America, we weren't really 'safe'. Things needed to change and we needed to be able to move all our belongings in the span of 10 minutes. Welcome to the World Race… God is going to provide me with whatever it is I need, even when the shower leaks on me and we have to change rooms at late hours of the night. He promises that he is my God. He promises me, "do not fear; I will help you" Isaiah 41:13.
