Yesterday I received this text from my
roommate:
Here, let me explain.
Monday night we came back to our dorm from a
relaxing Easter weekend and before I left to visit with friends, I quickly
turned the temp down a little bit, and came back realizing that it hadn't
gotten much cooler. A couple days passed, and again, I realized that our room
was still pretty hot. But it's getting warmer outside, so I thought maybe I was
just going crazy and was just pretty warm in our room all the time.
Finally Emily came into the room the other day
and said, "Is it really hot to you, too?!" And we checked the
thermostat to see what was wrong. Apparently it's broken, and we don't know how
to fix it. Lucky for us, maintenance hasn't come fix it yet.
Our room is hot, ya'll.
Like, we've been waking up at night sweating.
We took our fan and put it on the ground, and we
took the mattresses and put them on the ground, so the fan blows on both of us
at night now. I will say, it's like a little sleepover every night. But the excitement
is quickly overshadowed by the fact that it's still steaming hot, and we
currently can't walk anywhere in our room.
My roommate and I have a tendency to jokingly
complain about petty things. But unfortunately, I've let myself turn this into
actual complaining. Everyday I wake up and I find myself upset by my current
living conditions. I'm grumpy because I have to blow my hair dry in the sauna.
As if I wasn't hot already. Or that I can't sit at my desk and do my
hair/makeup because my mattress currently has my chair locked away under my
desk.
I dreamt about my beautiful China babies last
night, and woke up feeling as if I was in China again. The sweat on my brow
(ew, I know) reminded me of the hot nights spent tossing and turning in the
hotel when the air conditioning turns off around 1 am.
And that's when it occurred to me. It was as if
God was giving me a big slap in the face.
MEGAN. You're being so petty.
I was reminded of my sweet babies in the
orphanage that don't have central air or heat. Suddenly I had flashbacks to
summers spent in the orphanage, seeing the sweat drip off the kids' faces, and
the heat rash all over the babies' skin.
And I started thinking of all the things that I
am so privileged to have. I started to kick myself thinking of how broken and
changed I am every year when coming back from my missions trips, seeing the
living conditions these kids live in, but how quickly I slip back into my homey
life back in the States. I realized that I take so much for
granted.
Instead of being upset that my room might be a
couple (or 10) degrees hotter than I would like, I should be thankful for
everything that I do have. Like, the fact that I even have a room to live in, a
bed to sleep on, an education, a job, and so much more.
And as it happens, when I sat down to do my quiet
time today, a notecard with this verse fell out of my Bible:
"Rejoice always, pray
without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus for you."
~1 Thessalonians 15:16-18~
Okay, God. I get it. I haven't had a joyful
attitude, and I haven't been thankful through it all.
And I find that not only in this very minor
situation, but even throughout this semester there have been times when I
have forgotten this verse. There have been days when I have
been devastated and angry about my situation instead of finding joy and
thanking Him for my circumstances, thanking Him for this chance to learn, and
to grow in deeper dependence on Him.
Well, today I choose joy. A joy that only comes
from relying on my savior and being thankful through very
circumstance. Today I choose to fall into opportunities to rely on the Lord instead of resisting them.
And on the bright side, I only have a week
and a half left in the dorm room. And hey, maybe I'll lose some of that
Freshman 15 from being in the sauna at night ;).
