One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

This little phrase becomes more true to me everyday I live. I think everything in our kitchen was taken from somebody else who wanted to throw it away. I got home tonight and my roommate had helped a friend of his pack to move and we picked up a few more plates and glasses and even a few casseroule dishes. Next thing we need is to luck up and see somebody throwing away an oven! All we have now is a glorified camp stove, but it works. It seems I am always the one finding the treasure in somebody else's trash.

Which brings me to the serious part of the post, where most people will stop reading I'm sure. But tonight my roommate was lamenting to me about how sad this upcoming year is to him. How it will be the same as the last and it will come and go and nothing will be different except he will be older and he still won't be satisfied with life. How sad. Now before you judge him, he has more joy than most people I know, he was just having a down night. Maybe because his attempt at making pancakes didn't turn out so well (it looked more like a plate of mashed potatoes) or maybe it's because I was walking around without a shirt on again, I don't know, but normally he's cheerful and he wasn't tonight. But anyways, he was just generally depressed at the thought of this upcoming year. HA! How funny is that? I've been waiting on this upcoming year for a long time! Funny how what looks to be trash to my friend is one of the greatest treasures I have found. Being able to spend a year in a foreign country, learning a new language and culture, meeting new people, eating new foods, and talking to people about things they have never heard of before! Who knows what God will do over the next year? Maybe it will be the worst year in the history of the world, but maybe it will be the greatest. We are not promised either. All we have to hold onto is God, but if you what, if that's not enough, I don't know what else would be. We have two pictures to look at, Paul, shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, and loads of other maladies on top of that, who found a way to be content in all situations (Phil. 4, read it). And who could forget the ultimate example, Jesus "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross" (Heb. 12, read it). I don't care how bad this upcoming year is, something tells me it won't be as bad as these two guys had it, and they found ways to be content with what they had, namely, the hope that comes from knowing God. That's what we need to be, not married or rich or in the middle of some great adventure, we just need to be content. So with that, I look forward to this upcoming year. I have no idea what it will be like. Maybe my stomach problems will never cease, maybe it will always be this hot, maybe my fan will break, maybe I will be beaten and killed. All of those things are possible, but the only thing I know for sure, is that God will be with me through it all, and that is quite a treasure.