Yes indeed, school is out and I'm singing that old song loudly!
I get to go to California tomorrow, whoo hoo! I've never been north of LA so I'm pretty pumped to go up to Napa/San Francisco. Also pumped to see my sister!
Life is gooooood : )
On another topic, I've been thinking lately that my Kenya trip was sort of a vacation for the soul...which sounds terribly cheesy and is not related in ANY way to any chicken soup for the soul business. It was just an oasis of peace and beauty for me...
I've also been thinking about how wealthy my African friends are in heart and how different it is here. We, who are so wealthy in terms of material things and in health and ease of life, are so poverty stricken as far as heart goes. What I mean is that the girls that I spent most of my time with in Nairobi were consistently overflowing with joy. They sang and laughed constantly, finding such happiness in the tiny things of life. And all that praise for God in the midst of terrible situations...fears of being broken into at night, fears of being raped, fears of being sold for a dowry to a bad husband, fears of not finding food for the night, fears of malaria and HIV and TB and a million other diseases, fears of being stuck in the situations in which they find themselves... It was like they acknowledged that life is hard, and then said "Nevermind! I'll sing anyway!" Pretty incredible...
So now the question is, how do we grow hearts so full of God's joy here, at home? How do we become content with what God hasn't given us, praising him for both good and bad? How do we see what wealth we possess and determine to make others' lives better with it? How do we learn to take the hard things in life in stride, taking them as just another mountain or two to cross? Can we Americans, who take our great blessings so for granted, learn to sing amidst the tears that come?
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