At the End of Thirty Days

When I left my house on June 13, I grabbed one of the four large suitcases lined up in a row by my bedroom door. I was going to a youth retreat for a week, then to a college orientation, then on my senior trip, and finally to Guatemala city on a mission trip...all in a period of thrity days. From June 13 to July 13, I probably spent about 6 hours awake at my house, and those precious hours were spent doing laundry and last minute packing for the next trip.

Although the past month has been crazy, it has definitely been a good kind of crazy. A life-changing kind of crazy. God filled me up with truth at the youth camp, He reminded me of His plan for my life at the college orientation, He revealed His presence to me on my senior trip, and He changing my perpective of the world on the mission trip. Its amazing what God can do in thirty days!

But what He did in my heart didn't go unnoticed by the enemy. In fact, I think that when God's children are reenergized for Him, they become key targets for the devil. Satan must hate it when God gains complete control over a heart, so he tries everything he can to mess things up again. When I came home from my thrity day adventure, I couldn't wait to share the passion and excitement for Christ that had built up in my heart as a result of life-altering experiences. But my joy and enthusiasm was physically crushed by some aches, pains, chills, headaches, and stomach pains known as the swine flu. My body has officially been miserable for five days now, and that pain was beginning to soak into my spirit this morning. As I was praying, I told God, "Lord! I have all these stories to tell and memories to share! You taught me so much that I want to share with others! All this passion that you built up in me the past few weeks is being destroyed by this inconvenient illness." But God, hearing my prayers and the cries of my heart (as always!), gently reminded me of something through my Bible Study:

"They are to stand every morning to thank and to praise the Lord, and likewise at evening."
1 Chronicles 23:30

Do you ever read a Scripture and feel like God put it there just for you in that moment? This morning, I felt like God was directly whispering truth to me. He was saying, "Be thankful! Hold on to the passion, treasure the memories, and hide the stories in your heart by being thankful!"

So as I have laid in bed today, I have allowed God to fill my heart and my mind with thankfulness. I've been thankful for this swine flu because it has given me a time of rest to recouperate from a busy thirty days. I've replayed memories and images in my head, sorting through the details and emotions of each moment so that I can remember them forever. I've been thankful for the time I've had to look at pictures and journal stories from the roads I've traveled. Now this sickness, which could have easily robbed me of my new-found joy, has bottled up even more passion inside of me. Now I can't wait for the moment when I am finally able to get out and about again. I'll be that much more excited to share all the things I've experienced and live all the things I've learned in these past thrity days!