Rejoicing in Suffering

Some jerk broke into Nathan's car Sunday night.

Not "broke into" like they bashed in one of the windows; "broke into" as in they took a device, removed the entire lock mechanism and then proceeded to try and hot wire the car by cutting out a piece of the plastic underneath the ignition.  The key wouldn't fit in the ignition, so Nathan couldn't start the car.   Almost the entire steering wheel column, the entire lock and door handle have to be replaced.  It's going to be about a thousand dollars.

Nathan's very frustrated, because it's a big chunk out of his savings for our move.  I'm really frustrated because I don't understand how people can be so low as to try and steal honest, hard-working people's cars.  

At first we had kind of this "Why me?" mentality; we both kicked around the idea that maybe God was trying to tell us something specific, or that maybe he was punishing us.  But my God is not one who deliberately punishes His children, as a parent would spank a child.  My God is a father and a teacher; he knows what lessons are best for us to learn, and that sometimes we have to struggle and suffer for a while to get the point.

There's a really great bible verse I first heard when I was having a really rough time my senior year in college:

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.  - Romans 5:3-5

Not to say that I'm jumping up and down celebrating that Nathan's car got broken into; I'm definitely not.  It was a pretty big blow. If anything, though, the tougher times make me appreciate the easier times, and I know that once we make it back to Oregon, we'll appreciate all of God's blessings that much more because they were slightly difficult to come by for a while.  Plus, the important thing is that the car wasn't stolen and nobody was hurt.  In the long run, it's just a car.  It's not even remotely as valuable as our lives and our health.

There are so many things we take for granted.  When those things fall away, we realize what huge blessings they are.

On a happy note, we visited the Franklin Park Conservatory on Sunday after church.  It was really wonderful to just be around so many beautiful plants and trees.  Not to mention the fact that each room was temperature controlled to about sixty five degrees.  THAT was awesome. :)