This race has looked a lot like working to be content with conditions. It is work though because you don’t just sit down on your dirty mattress with spiders in it, or lay down on your sleeping pad and listen to the rats, and feel immediately content.
These 3 months I am focusing a lot on this idea because I know the Lord is calling me to full missions out of the states, which means a lot of the comforts I have grown up with I won’t have anymore. So in doing that I have to think positive and keep a solid perspective. If I can do it for 3 months I can do it for 3 years… right?? Well that logic doesn’t quite make since, but yeah of course I can because I have the ultimate comforter at my side guiding me. What else could I possibly need?
Another thing I am learning is that there is a difference between being content and being joyful. Since I have the spirit in me I can always be joyful because I have his joy in me, but that doesn’t always mean I will be content. I might sit down on that dirty African bus, surrounded by people who don’t wear deodorant, sweating through my clothes, and not really feel content. However, in that moment I can find joy. Joy in the fact that I’m in freaking Africa. Joy in the fact that I am meeting more of God’s children thousands of miles away from home. Joy in the fact that he created a beautiful earth with a beautiful sun for me to enjoy.
To me it’s a heart posture. I can let my conditions block me or I can look beyond how “content” I am so I can see the true joy he has placed inside of me. It’s not easy and it takes time to really believe it, but once you’re there, what can stop you?
