Perspective.

Yesterday was... well, how shall I say... less than excellent.  It just seemed that every other interaction, conversation, email, and phone call was informing me of something I had done wrong, a word misunderstood or misconstrued to bring hurt in a way never intended, or somehow/someway I was just not enough or too much.  By mid-evening, after a long day, I had really worked myself up to the place of wondering what the heck I am doing here anyway. 

You might say I had lost my perspective... somewhere along the course of the day I had lost sight of the bigger picture and had begun to focus on the small things... and it took me out.

Then the headlines started popping up on my Facebook wall, the chatter picked up, "have you heard about Boston?"  As I pulled up the news sites, that punched-in-the-stomach feeling hit me, and the tears came.  How can something like this happen?  Devastated... I mourn with those who mourn.

96 countries were represented yesterday in Boston, and living in the international community of the Africa Mercy, we recognize the impact this has on all of us.  As the story unfolds, once again I realize I feel safer here in Africa than anywhere else I've lived, and I know this will have lasting effects, ripples and waves, across the globe. And somehow I have to continue to believe and trust God's heart for his people is good.

Today, I choose to rise up above the waves crashing around me and around the world; He is still on the throne, I trust God through the storm, will focus my perspective on that which remains long after the storms have passed and the waves have calmed and my time on earth comes to an end.