So today I got a text from my dad informing me that I have been leaving his good friend Wayne hanging since I haven't posted in 3 months. Time to fix that! So Wayne, this one's for you.
This summer I 'm working at my college, rather than spending the summer at home, and I have been very blessed by some old family friends who have invited me to live with them for the summer. I'm comfortably situated in a cute little room above their garage and I really couldn't ask for a better set up. In fact, I was so comfortable the other day that I almost didn't notice the monstrous hornet chilling on my bottle of make-up remover. I was getting ready for bed and was about to take out my contacts and was reaching for my bottle of solution when I noticed the menacing flying attacker no more than 3 inches from my hand. No worries, I managed not to scream my head off... barely.
For about 2 minutes, I panicked. I'm actually a little disappointed that there was nobody there to witness what followed because I'm pretty certain it looked like something from a cartoon. I literally ran around my little room in circles, flailing my arms, looking for random objects to entrap the beast with, all while attempting to keep an eye on the insect in case it decided to make a kamikaze dive at me. Keep in mind, I was extremely tired when all this was going on, so I can't be held (entirely) responsible for my intense overreaction.
Finally I settled on tossing a bandana over both the villain and it's perch, securing the loose ends with a hair band, and bashing it repeatedly into the floor from all angles. When I still heard it's wings buzzing pathetically like a fly in a bug light, I decided it was better not to take chances and started pounding the whole bundle with both of my tennis shoes. I waged a full out war on that little blue package... I even created a battle cry. Again, I'm realizing now what a pity it is that I was alone for all of this.
About 15 minutes after spotting the terror, I was finally satisfied that I had succeeded in my mission. Untying the hairband, I flung the bandana open on the floor. Out rolled my (dented) bottle of make-up remover, but the corpse was nowhere to be seen. I stretched out the bandana a little bit more and then jumped back in terror. There in the middle of my bandana, a very large, very alive, and probably very angry hornet was marching across the paisleys toward me.
Biting my lip to keep from screaming, I folded up the bandana again, proceeded to roll over the whole thing with shoes, rolled the whole thing up tight, tied it off, doused it heavily in liquid, and threw it away. That should have done the trick right? Well this was last night and I just looked in the trash this evening (to pour more water on it to be honest) and I'm 99% positive I saw that bandana moving.
So what has any of this got to do with anything, other than giving all of you a reason to laugh at my sheer terror over something about half the size of my pinky? Allow me to explain. If you've read any portion of my blog before, you know full well that God likes to use times of fear and hardship in my life to teach me important lessons, so why should this be any different? As I was driving today I was reflecting on that freakishly durable bug and I realized that God makes things that are built to last. Now don't go getting all technical on me, I know that lots of things in creation are a lot easier to kill/ruin/demolish/dispose of then that flying fiend (thank goodness) but allow me to explain what I mean.
This year has been a difficult one. My battle with arthritis has not been easy, especially over the last month of the school year. I've had some heartbreak, and I've watched people close to me fight illness and death. I've struggled academically, and I've fought off exhaustion as I worked 4 jobs in addition to a full class load. I've been sick, I've been tired, I've been in pain, and I've been frustrated... but I didn't die. Sure, my bandana has been smashed around a bit and I've gone a couple rounds with a plastic bottle full of weird smelling liquid, but I haven't curled up and buzzed my last. I've regained my bearings and marched on. Think of 2 Cor 4:8-10
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."
Now this will probably be the only time you ever hear me compare myself to a gargantuan bubble-butted stinging insect, but you have to admit that there is a resemblance in our situations. My point is this, God's not messing around. You've heard about "built Ford tough," but that has nothing on God's warranty. We don't have to fear the bandanas and tennis shoes of life, even the make-up removers have nothing on us, because we have a God that knew what He was doing when He made us. We come with a lifetime warranty, and we were built to last.
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