Lately I've been realizing how much of a country girl I really am. I spent most of my childhood living on five acres in a suburb of a suburb. It took thirty minutes to get to Wal-Mart, twenty for church, and fifteen to the nearest gas station. Our little "town" had one stoplight, a movie rental store, Italian restaurant, and county jail/post office. On July 4th, 4-H made up most of the parade. ;)
On a whole I loved living there but I didn't (and still don't) really appreciate living in the middle of nowhere and I don't quite have a knack for country life. So when I say I'm a country girl I just mean it in the way that I think and do things. For instance, every time somebody turns on a garbage disposal I still freak out and think "Oh no! They didn't clear all the food out first! It's going to get cloooggedd!! NNnnNooOOOo!" Or when we were growing up we joked half seriously about using only three squares of toilet paper per wipe and to this day, believe it or not!, I still use only three squares. It is almost unfathomable to me how city people don't need a whole weekend to do their outside chores. No one knows what a crick (creek) is and they don't save their egg cartons to give back to the neighbors who raise the chickens.
Talk about a whole new world! Whew, it's incredible! Jon has been helping me adjust and loosen up a little bit so I now run eggs and bread crumbs through the disposal and I don't have a spasm if that extra half of a square goes into the toilet. But this has all got me thinking about how much change we go through in life that requires adaptation.
As individuals we change, our environment changes, the people we know change...etc. Without change we would never grow, never become the individuals we were meant to be. I remember thinking one time how I wished everything in my life would just stay the same forever. Then before I could turn around twice everything had changed and I felt like I was stumbling around in the dark searching for a way to adapt and get my head above water again. My only comfort and stability was God. He's the one thing that is ever constant. We can go through a move, have children grow and leave the house, start a new hobby, get a salary cut, lose a best friend, have constant car trouble, or start a family and we will have a chance to develop and grow or shrivel up and die.
Right now I want you to picture a pond of water in a meadow. It has green trees and lush grass with wild flowers growing around it. Birds are swooping down from a clear blue sky to grab insects dancing on the water. A deer comes for a drink and scares away the little frog family sunning themselves on a log. You have been absorbing all the beauty and serenity from a distance, but now you move forward. As you take a closer look at the pond you notice there is no sun glittering on the water, in fact, as you lean over, you notice it reflects nothing at all. The water is vile and smells retched with some sort of slimy fungus growing on it. This pond is stagnant.
My mom always used to ask me what happened to water if it was never moving, never "growing" or "expanding". Well of course it becomes stagnant. And then she would say that that is kind of what happens to us if we are never learning or growing. We would become stagnant like the pond if nothing ever reached in and caused a stirring every once in a while. We need the wind to blow to keep the "algae" away otherwise how are we to reflect the Son?
So keep your head up and don't be afraid to laugh in the face of change. It's ok to enjoy life while the wind is blowing.
Live. Laugh. Love.
