I’ve been sick in bed for 4 straight days. I have not felt good at all. I have not had enough sunshine, conversation, good food or human interaction and today I reached my limit! (It did cross my mind later that there are people who are in this situation for much longer than 4 days, but that is for another blog.)

So I marched downstairs and told Todd, and anyone else who would listen, that I wanted to go home. I want to drive my car. I want to shop at Safeway. I want to eat a salad at Blue Ridge Grill just to name a few things. Todd’s response was, (in a calm, unconcerned tone) “You will be fine once you get out of the house tomorrow. You get the same way when you are sick and cooped up at home in the states.” (Ok well that might be true, but that was NOT the sympathy I was looking for.)

I headed back upstairs and spent an hour on the Vera Bradley website for a little “Window Shopping Retail Therapy”. That ended with me being frustrated that I couldn’t have anything shipped here anyway…So I grabbed my devotional book and opened it up and I promise you, this is what it said,

“Sometimes my little kingdom totters, my family convulses and my mind staggers to the edge. Then I must be still and know that God is God…..I must avoid running back to Egypt for help.  Egypt looked formidable but her looks were decieving. She had glamour but no strength.It is not a sin to have an Egypt, it’s a sin to rest on Egypt instead of God.”

“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in him.” Nahum 1:7

…and He knows those who take refuge in him.…Boy does He ever!

(In case you are unfamiliar with the story, after years of the Israelites begging God to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, God finally uses Moses to lead them out of slavery and Egypt. But of course, as they were wandering around in the desert waiting to get to the promised land, they were not happy. The people started complaining that they wanted to go back to Egypt, where they were slaves, but it was familiar. You can find the story in Genesis and Exodus in the Bible.)

(Maureen)