Don't worry be happy always

I can still remember spending summer nights when I was little playing baseball out in the front yard with my family and making smores over a campfire, I remember so many times wishing that the day would never end just because everything in that moment was so wonderful I never wanted to leave it. Every day so far this week has been one of those days. As our time in Kasei too quickly passes us by we are finding it hard not to get caught up in the bittersweetness of our last memories, and it is evident that most of our friends are also struggling to push aside the looming reminders of our departure. On Monday we will leave for Cape Coast and from there go on to Accra for a week, hopefully all of the new experiences and adventures still to come will help us not to get too caught up on all of the now familiar things that we will be forced to leave behind. Especially this last week I have been doing my best to try to just focus on being grateful for all of my time spent here, and as Monday draws nearer I find myself being stretched in this every day. After spending these last two weeks in the hospital working in surgery and maternity, I can say that these have definitely become two of my favorite places in the hospital and between putting in stitches and delivering a baby I couldn’t imagine any better way to end our time working here. It has been getting harder and harder to leave the hospital by two every day and the longer that we are here the later we end up staying at the hospital each time. Lately my friends here have been showing me a different perspective on what it means to be grateful and how to live a life filled with gratitude even for promises that are yet to be fulfilled and for redemption and restoration that is still on the way. I am in awe of the simple things that they are thankful for that I would so quickly take for granted both big and small.  I would never have imagined how excited they would be for the five cent bags of water that we brought them after their soccer game, or that they would be so proud that we came to cheer them on even though 12 of the players had to cram together in the back seat and trunk of a taxi just to make room for me and Audrey in the front seat in order for all of us to get back to Kasei after the game. I am grateful for all of the friends we have made here who bless us in so many small ways each day that they probably aren’t even aware of like translating the devotions at the clinic for us each morning, teaching us how to eat banku for breakfast, helping us put antibiotics on our blisters after beating beans at the farm, and staying with us at the hospital at night when we take care of someone from one of the groups that is visiting who got malaria. This past Thursday was the very first Fourth of July that I have ever spent outside of the United States and I think that it made me more grateful than ever before for many things that I am often unaware of because they are things that I have never had to go without.  That night when one of my friends, a little girl named Manuela, hugged my waist tightly and whispered God bless you as I snuck her my plates of chicken and rice and she ran off to share it with her friends and siblings, I couldn’t help but think that I’ve never been to a fourth of July party where I worried about making sure people get something to eat because I know they don’t have anything else, while I will still have plenty of food back at the house. “Don’t worry be happy” it seems like this isn’t really an expression I would use to describe life here, however, this is the saying our friends have kept repeating to us this week. In situations where we might find it hard to be grateful they are always encouraging and teaching me with their unwavering faith even in many trying moments.  Whether it is waiting for the outcome of an interview, hoping for the support to apply to school, or just keeping up with life and work while getting over malaria, I am learning from them that how we overcome things is less about who we are and more about who our God is. So even when I feel like I am unraveling, I don’t want to worry so much about putting all of the pieces back together and getting everything right because I know that in His hands, by His will, my weaknesses will be used to bring God glory. I’m pretty sure “don’t worry be happy” is a fairly common phrase, it’s something I’ve definitely heard more than once before, but I think one of the things that has made it special to me is what my friends here have added on at the end, just one simple word… always. “Don’t’ worry be happy always”, although you might not think it flows as smoothly and it doesn’t necessarily fit the tune in my head as well as before I don’t think I will ever say it any other way. Always… even when things aren’t working out, even when every day is hard, even when you don’t know what you are looking forward to, even when your faith is all you have in fact simply because your God is all you need be grateful and don’t worry instead continually choose to see how He is being glorified both in His provision for you but also in your reliance upon Him. Being happy doesn’t mean just hoping things always work out for you but being grateful each new day because even though we have not yet reached what we are seeking, God has promised to finish to completion the work that he has started in us. Even though it hurts to think about the life I will leave behind here and the people I will be separated from, I know that it has all been a blessing that is so much more than I deserve and it is all for His glory. I am grateful because even though there is pain in having to leave on Monday I know that I am only sad to go because I have been given so incredibly much during my time here. James 1:2-17, 4:14, 5:7-11, 1 Peter 1:3-9, Psalm 100