Contentment in All Circumstances

"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:11b-13 NIV

One thing I am learning about myself is that I struggle with contentment.  Though there are always aspects of every location that I enjoy, I constantly have my next move in the back of my mind.  Recently, this has become even more of a struggle for me as I find myself being forced to eat foods I dislike on a daily basis, take cold showers, and lose Internet connection every 30 seconds. My host family lives very differently then I am accustomed to living.  We clean our clothing by hand and our host mom literally dumps half the bottle of detergent in the bucket we soak our clothing in (even though the detergent is triple strength!)  I have no control over what my host mom feeds me.   When she serves us papaya again and again, I secretly want nothing more then to walk over to the trash can and throw it all out.   My host family never turns off their tv.  In fact, often they all fall asleep in front of the tv and stay there all night, using the tv as an alarm to wake them up in the morning.  I don't know what they are saying half the time and I have no control over anything that happens.  We are required to ask permission from our host family for everything we do - from taking a shower, to eating a snack, to going on a walk.  Quite honestly, think I had more freedom when I was 7.  But in all of this, I am learning to be content.

I am learning to be content even though I feel like I'm wearing a pot of soap on my clothing.  I am learning to be thankful that we have food (even if it is papaya and cactus).  I am thankful that we have electricity at all (even if it means the tv will never turn off), thankful that we can access the Internet (even if it doesn't work half the time), and thankful that God is allowing me to go through a time in which I have no control over anything.  When Paul wrote that he had learned the secret of being content he didn't mean that he enjoyed every situation, but he did mean that he learned to rest in God in every situation.  This is the secret of being content - it is learning how to find our peace and comfort in the presence of God and not in the presence of material objects.  So I am praying that I might learn the secret of being content in every situation - whether with Internet or without, whether near family or apart, whether eating foods I enjoy or foods that I dislike, and whether at home or in unfamiliarity.  

I Once Thought Chicago Was Big...

          I sit on the bus and stare out the window.  If the traffic is light, I will only ride this bus for one hour, if it is heavy, I will ride it for three.  Every so often a vendor walks onto the bus shoving some new food into our hands in hopes that we will make the purchase.  The streets outside are filled with color: outdoor markets, graffiti on every building, street vendors, apartments, buses, homes, cars, and people, so many people as far as you can see.  And all of it blends together to create a symphony of sights, smells, and sounds called Mexico City.  I get off the bus and walk to the Metro.  The line is packed and I shove my way into an already full car.  Immediately, I am surrounded by a wall of people on all sides of me. I look at our hands, all grasping for something to keep us upright as the metro lurches to a stop.  We are all so different, yet in this moment, we are so similar and I am struck by the complexity of humanity.  For in this moment, we are all here together, and, in the next moment, we will never be again.  I hop off the Metro and head down the street.  I share the sidewalk with street vendors, people traveling in all directions, and occasional cars that decided to park on the sidewalk since there really isn't any room to park on the street.
          And somehow, amidst the difference of it all, I feel perfectly at home.  You see, I am now able to see how God has been preparing me for this moment for years now.  When I first moved to Chicago it was a difficult transition.  I was unused to life in the city: the public transportation and the lifestyle differences of living in such a huge place.  The first few years I yearned to be home amongst the mountains, I longed for the ease of taking a car and not needing to walk a mile with my groceries or wait half an hour in the snow for my bus.  And yet, as time passed, I grew to see the beauty of the different styles of life.  I learned to navigate the city and feel comfortable in the middle of a crowd.  I learned that despite the danger a big city presents it also brings with it a wondrous thing -  for it is a place full of faces that all reflect the image of God.
          My new "Chicago" is about 7 times bigger, speaks a different language, and has streets that wind around so much that they literally resemble a bowl of spaghetti.  Yet, my new "Chicago" is filled with the same stuff as the last one.  People.  People who are hurting, people who are laughing, people who are busy, people who have nothing to do, yet all these people have more in common than meets the eye: they are all people searching for a purpose; people who desperately need God.  Sure, the people here might buy milk in a box and bread that is already toasted, serve chilies with every meal, and eat four times a day instead of three, but underneath all the cultural differences they are a people who need God as much as we all do.  Would you join me in praying for these people?

This is a small, yes small, section of Mexico City :)

This is the street I live on - near where the man is walking