Yesterday Tyler and I had the pleasure of delivering some needed items to a family who lost everything in the tornado. This family is very dear to the hearts of everyone in my family, so it was great to see them and be able to see how my family can bless them. One of the things the wife said to me was that it was good to see and talk to people who have "normal" going on, as their lives are extremely far from normal at this time. She said they have spent much time with people who are far from normal right now, so it's refreshing to be reminded that normalcy is still happening right now.
Well, what normal is for me in Tyler is even changing. This past weekend I was able to spend much time with my family and outside of the devestation that is Joplin. It was great to be in a town that is not mas chaos. It was great to not go out in public and be extremely aware that I am very clean and have nice clothes. Sometimes in the past week I have felt like I am in a different country because so much of this town is wearing someone elses clothes, digging through rubble all day, and not having the same hygiene situations as before. It's like being the minority in your hometown. Weird stuff. Anyway...
Normal for us means back to the grind of working part time and searching wholeheartedly for a place for Tyler to serve full time. Normal for us might mean Tyler working two part time jobs, me tossing around the idea of finding a job with more hours. Normal for us means constantly praying for God to open a door. I'm not gonna lie... right now would be a good time to leave Joplin as 4,000 jobs have been affected. Here we are, searching for a 3rd job in our family.
I know that God has kept us here for reasons. I know for a fact that God is working, but we are anxiously awaiting for him to reveal what he is doing. I am glad we are here so that we can serve this town. I know if we had moved recently we would be heartbroken not being in this place that we love and have called home for four and five years. So maybe that's a reason why we are here. Other things have happened too in the past week that make me reconsider why we are still in Joplin. Maybe we are here to minister in ways we did not anticipate ministering.
The main point of all of this is that even though our lives are continuing as normal right now, we are still trying to find our new normal... a normal without school, without one full time job, without much of a plan for the future. We are sure that God has a plan and that he is working and there is a purpose for us staying in Joplin for now. We are just waiting, waiting, and waiting some more for him to provide the means for us to survive in Joplin until we can leave.
Waiting is the worst. On the bright side, I get to wait with Tyler... and boy, does that make life interesting.
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