I've experienced 23 months of February in my life and I am still always surprised at how short it actually is. I said before that I would try to find something beautiful about each day until volunteers arrived in March. I suppose you could say that it was my own kind of unconventional celebration of Lent, just not at the same time as everyone else. Folks, today is the last day of February which means that I have completed my task and made it through the winter. Many of my friends have told me that they don't feel like their lives are interesting enough to write a blog about. I disagree, fundamentally because I care about all of them and would love to know what they're thinking all the time, but also as a result of my "beauty experiment." I'd like to challenge those friends to do a similar thing, even privately in a journal, to write down something each day--something beautiful, funny, inspiring, whatever. Guarantee the blogosphere would become instantly more exciting. Once you're seeking out those experiences they seem to just happen for you. I often found that I was saying "yes" to more offers simply because I thought, "hey, maybe something beautiful will happen and then I can write about it!" Maybe that will start happening to some of my friends.
My roommates and I were chatting about a book that we're reading, called "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne, and an idea in it (and in a lot of other places) that "God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable." I realized that maybe I had become too comfortable with my idea of ASP, its ministry and its place in my life, with my relationship with God, and with my standard ways of finding Him. So, he sent some people and situations my way that really messed with all that, disturbed me a lot and forced me to ask, to seek, to simply knock. Well played, God, well played. In the end I have to be grateful for those uncomfortable and faith shaking times that brought me to today, feeling happy and blessed but hopefully not too comfortable.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7
Now, I know what you might be thinking--don't worry, I know that I'm not off the hook for finding beauty in the last two days of February. Nicki and I have been doing initial home visits (IHVs) and project planning this whole week, and I've been told that people enjoy laughing at my GIFs...so here are some dedicated specifically to IHVs. Beauty in laughter never gets old.
How we feel with our polos and nametags on:
Finding a house on the first try:
Backing the truck into a ditch and/or side of a mountain:
Me in any given driveway:
When a school bus comes towards us on a one lane road:
When directions to a house include "large rock in yard" "stump near driveway" or "turn by twisted tree":
When the house has puppies:
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