After about a week of a leaky air conditioner, and nothing ever fully drying because of the rain and humidity here, Nancy and I discovered that my truck has mildew. It’s bad – like really bad. I’m sure it was even there before the leaky AC. Actually I’m convinced of that. I always thought the truck smelled bad because it was old. So I would just spray it with febreeze…little did I know. So we pulled out the mats, and we dried out the inside. This morning when I opened the doors I was slammed in the face with the worst smell ever..and couldn’t stop coughing. So after researching if inhaling mildew would eventually kill me, I found different ways to (attempt) to clean it. Again, the thoughts were running through my head – if I was at home I could just bring it somewhere and get it cleaned well. But, I’ve started to remind myself lately that thinking the thoughts “well if I was in Canada…” doesn’t actually solve anything, but instead leaves me feeling frustrated and annoyed. So, I decided today that I was not going to let a little (ok, a lot) mildew get me down. No way.

Baking soda to the rescue

I was waiting in line at the grocery store with my 5 bottles of baking soda that I was going to douse my truck in, and started reading this mornings’ devotional by Charles Spurgeon. Side note: if you don’t have “Morning and Evening devotional” by Spurgeon you must get it – or download the app for free. Of course it was all about never getting comfortable when it comes to those easier seasons in life, but to gladly welcome the trials. It’s the trials that bring us back to Jesus. And we need them because we seem to forget about Jesus a bit when things are good – well, maybe it’s just me. I’m learning more and more that trials don’t have to be these BIG things. It could be the daily annoyances that just keep adding up until you feel like you’re at your breaking point.

Today Nancy told me about a friend of hers who was working in Kitwe, Zambia. He expressed his day to day annoyances as being “stoned to death with popcorn”. It doesn’t actually hurt, but man oh man it can be a bit much at times…you know that feeling of “if one more person cuts me off…if they run out of fuel one more time…” I thought it was such a great analogy.

Spurgeon puts it so well:

It’s about learning to kiss those waves, and embrace those trials that ultimately push us to the Rock of Ages (if we let them). It’s very easy for us to get mad and frustrated at those events, and it’s very easy for us to pray to God to take away everything that is hard on us. Difficult times have the power to push us to God, or away from God. However, when we choose to change our perspective and realize that yes, those difficult times are in fact very difficult, but that those difficult times in our life can push us to Jesus – our refuge and strength, our very present help in times of trouble, our guide who is with us in every moment – we can come to terms with the fact that we don’t have to face anything on our own. We may still go through it, whatever “it” may be, but we are not alone.

And with that, let us live each day embracing those waves, kissing those waves, letting those waves push us to our Father.

Lastly, if anyone has any tips on how to get rid of mildew, please let me know! 😉