Wheezy Kid at Church Camp

I realized I haven't been writing much here. Nothing has really been going on. I got sick. My netbook crashed. I opened my Costco bag of Pretzel M&Ms. I bought a humidifier.

So my boss told me to buy a humidifier. I honestly grew up thinking that humidifiers were for those wheezy kids at church camp (sorry if you have one and I just called you a wheezy church camp kid). I was quite hesitant to buy one. I didn't want to be one of those wheezy kids at church camp. But I bought one after I realized there was no one around to judge me and call me a wheezy kid. It's amazing. It makes breathing so much more pleasant. I didn't know it was possible. It's great. I'll take being called a wheezy kid at church camp any day for my humidifier!

My Skype Bible study finished Colossians, Philemon, and now we're on to Hebrews. It's the "if you thought you knew what faith was you're about to be kicked in the face with truth" book. But the thing that has kept coming up week after week is the idea of being thankful. Always be thankful. And it sounds stupid really. I mean, I always heard to be thankful growing up in church. And it's easy to be thankful at...Thanksgiving. Or Christmas. Or your birthday (if you get cool presents). But it's a lot harder to be thankful when things go wrong. Like your netbook crashing. Or catching a cold and semi-losing your voice before teaching forty1st graders. Or being 17 hours apart instead of just 16 hours. Uncontrollable circumstances. But I've been reading this book called "In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day" by Mark Batterson (amazing book if you haven't read it). In the second chapter of his book, he says, "How you think about God will determine who you become...And that internal picture of God determines how you see everything else...Our biggest problems can be traced back to an inadequate understanding of who God is. Our problems seem really big because our God seems really small. In fact, we reduce God to the size of our biggest problem. (28)" But I believe my God is bigger than a dead netbook. I believe my God is bigger than a cold...and forty 1st graders. I believe my God is bigger than an hour. I believe my God is so much bigger...and for that I can praise God. I can thank God because He is bigger. So even when it's freezing and I'm sick and my head feels like it's in a fishbowl, I can smile walking to work because I serve and worship a great God who can't love me anymore than He does right now. When I start getting frustrated or upset that things aren't going great, I thank Him for the things that are going right. I thank Him for the blessing to have things going wrong (I mean, not everyone has a new netbook or an amazing job or...time).

"God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him. God is great but because nothing is too small for Him either." -- "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day" Mark Batterson

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18