For Sale: One slightly used umbrella

For sale: One umbrella. Location: Costa Rica. Only used twice. May not be useful in normal applications. Cost: $1.00 primarily to remove my shame.

What you see here is a picture on my walk home from school. What you don’t see is the amount of water I had already walked into soaking me to mid-shin. I stayed after for tutoring to catch up from missing some work. When I left there was a downpour. It was like a waterfall. Then the winds picked up. Imagine anti-Mary Poppins. Then imagine picking up a cloth from a bucket of water. The cloth well that was me. My umbrella obviously not functioning at full capacity ensured that I was drenched including all of my school books . Thankfully I was only half way home.

What do you do when your life serves up a thunderstorm and you have a broken umbrella? Let me tell you what I did. I laughed and asked someone to take a picture. Trust me at this point, I could have reacted negatively. I could have gotten mad but really what was the worst part? I was soaked? My backpack was holding water. My school books soaked. My shoes wouldn’t dry for days. In the US, we have a statement, “Don’t cry over spilled milk.” Here in Costa Rica it is, “Don’t cry when water is on the floor.” The saying makes sense especially with our history here. In two months, our ceiling has leaked twice, water came under our door once flooding our living room, and 4 windows leak when we have rain from the east.

A little water isn’t worth crying over. In fact, I think I make a big deal about too many things. I do this mainly because I think too much of this life and too little of heaven. Please don’t misinterpret my reasoning, longing for heaven is good but heaven is good because Jesus is there. If I make Jesus my supreme desire the stuff in this world doesn’t matter near as much.

While this is good about suffering, I’m not a sufferer. I’m a Christian and a missionary. What does this have to do with missions? Well everything. After my time in language school, I will be transitioning to the mountains in Ecuador to work with the Highland Quichuas. I am not going there because of them. I’m going there because I love Jesus. Every day I have to put in the front of my mind that I am learning Spanish not for them or for me, but for Jesus. So with that, I’m off to study more irregular verbs.