Life has changed drastically! The Lord does that fairly often. At least in my life. While there are some with a higher level of uncertainty in their lives, I’ve had more than my share of “We’re moving in x-weeks” experiences.

          This time I had 13 days to pack and prepare for a trans-Atlantic move! Talk about stress inducers and the potential for a lot of bad, or at least not-so-good. I could have spent so much time dwelling on the negatives of this trip. The hurrying to pack and forgetting things I wanted to take; leaving my children, grown though they may be, to go live on the other side of the world for who knows how long; missing my deployed son returning to the States by 1 day (!); long travel times and waits in airports and train stations surrounded by a strange culture with no knowledge of the language; forced to find and outfit an apartment in said strange culture with limited money; thrown into a full-time teaching job with little knowledge of what to expect; etc, etc, etc. I could have dwelt on any or all of those negatives and been miserable.

          Had I done that, though, I would have missed out on so much my Lord did and is still doing. Instead, I trusted that this was His plan and I went forward in faith. After decades of living as His child, I know

“. . .that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

          Instead of focusing on the negatives, I intentionally made note of the positives.

          Fortunately, I did not have to pack up a house. Those staying in our house while we are overseas will benefit from my household supplies, furniture, books and whatnot. I did have to pack up all of my clothes and personal effects. Some (very little) came with me, some went into storage, but much was given away. No reason to hoard what I won’t be using and won’t need when I return. (Which could be years from now.)

          Both my husband and myself have full-time jobs in a time when many don’t. A true blessing after two years of odd-jobs and depleted savings accounts. (Although those two years were a true trust experience in their own right, with the Lord providing so much more in many miraculous and “coincidental” ways.) We are teaching English as a Foreign Language in a training center in China. In a country whose schools have 50-100 students in each class, teaching in a center which limits class size to 10 is a joy. As is being surrounded by students who want to learn instead of those forced to attend.

          Another, more relevant to this blog, bad that could become a good is my unreliable Internet service. Upon arrival here, I learned that many sites, like Facebook and YouTube, are permanently blocked. Others, like Wikipedia, are periodically blocked and even when not blocked, service is often unreliable. I’m rarely able to access this site. Which is why I haven’t updated it in so long. (And here you thought it was just because of my usual procrastination issues. )

          While on the surface, this seems to be a bad thing, there is potential to transform it into good. I just may be propelled out of my typical procrastination and into efficiency. Since I never know when, or for how long, I will be able to access this site, I’ll have to plan my uploads efficiently. That means writing blog posts and having them ready to upload. And that is just what I will do.

          I’m writing posts as often as possible (my new environment is giving me a lot of material to talk about!). When I am able, I will upload as many posts into the scheduler as possible before service is disrupted. It may occasionally sound as if something was written months before it is posted. It probably will be. But this inconvenience is, in fact, a golden opportunity to make this blog more consistent. I plan to live in the opportunity.

          How has the Lord changed bad into good in your life? How are you participating in that?