Just When I Thought

It's sure been an exciting Operation Christmas Child week. It's hard to believe that just a week ago we were still working hard to load boxes onto that truck.

Then on Monday we learned that God had blown us away again by giving us 34,941 shoeboxes--way over our prayed-for goal of 32,011.

So why am I here on this post-National Collection Week Sunday feeling so irrationally irritated? I keep thinking of Elijah who reacted to the great victory God gave him with depression and suicidal thoughts.

Not that I'm feeling THAT bad, but I do feel emotionally strung out and somewhat adrift when I should still be deliriously grateful.

I'm irritated that we spent money this week I didn't plan on spending--the new iPhone is nice, but charges and the insurance and all the extras sure added up. And, of course, we face the holiday gift-buying season now and I'm not so well prepared for that.

I had been going back and forth on whether to buy pens for next year's boxes now while the wholesaler is offering 20% off but then decided maybe I'd better not be storing them in the cold container over the winter. So as we handed over the credit card at the Verizon store all I could think of was that I could have bought all the pens I needed for next year's boxes with what we were forking over for phones. So irritating.

Then today I went to church and saw the pile of leftover Operation Christmas Child boxes that didn't make it onto the truck. There's a picture of some of them above. 29 and counting. I hear there are more at Chick-fil-A and another church.

I don't know anyone nearby going to an OCC Processing Center so they'll all have to be sent via US Mail. And, of course, they're all big and heavy.

Maybe if I could really see the kids who will get them I wouldn't resent mailing them so much. And someone at church took pity on me and handed me some money to help with the cost of postage.

I need an attitude adjustment. God has done so many GREAT things this week. I should be nothing but grateful.

Really, I should.