Well, Lori and I are back in the states and I must say that I am feeling way better about that this year than I have in the past (especially last year). The whole culture shock thing is so real for me. I was recently speaking with one of our interns from this year and she was expressing how difficult of a time she is having adjusting back to her life here in the good old USA. She is feeling useless, like she is really not doing anything worthwhile, etc., etc. The nature of the work in Honduras throughout the summer is pretty intense. We wake up each day and go to work (building homes, distributing food and clothing, conducting VBS', meeting basic needs) among some of the poorest people on the face of the planet. The needs are obvious and apparent and it is easy to see what to do. Back here in "over the mountain" Birmingham, AL, we live in the suburbs and our daily interactions and the environment we are in makes it less easy to see what to do. The needs of those around us is less obvious. Are there still needs and things to "do"? Absolutely. It just takes a keener awareness and more attention to discover some of what those are. I'm pretty confident that God has each of us exactly where he can use us. Are we open to letting him use us where we are? Are we ok with that use being less grandiose or intensive or obvious? Are we ok letting God decide the who, what, where, and when of our journey? Does our own guilt drive us to feel like we need to do more or something other than what we are doing? In Philippians, Paul talks of contentment. The context is of him having or not having those things he needs (food, maybe money), but here in 4:11-13, I get the sense that Paul has come to the understanding that he can be content in any and all circumstances that he may find himself in. Here is Eugene Peterson's reading of it in The Message.

Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

I don't like the word happy here very much. I think content is probably more accurate. Contentment and happiness may not necessarily have to be tied together in my mind. What I do know for sure is that I long to have this same contentment. I want to continue to move towards finding this recipe..... this understanding..... this contentment.