Thursday, February 05, 2009

the little things

Last night at youth group, there was an open mic for praises. Two of them were for what they deemed "little things," the gift of a replacement iPod and that God answered prayer for finding lost guitar picks. Both commented on how God cares about the little things as well as the big.

It was kind of cool because I lost my cell phone for about an hour the other day. I went snow shoeing and took a few pictures at one point. About 45 minutes later I dug for my phone and after searching all my pockets, determined that I indeed did not have it on me.
When I'm sick or terribly stressed, my lip makes these involuntary contortions. I did a 180, contorting and scanning the entire landscape for any sign of my phone. I went back to the last spot where I knew I had it, praying all the way. But it wasn't there. I did another 180, figuring I'd go back and forth as long as it took to find it. Fifty yards from the last place I had it, I spied a familiar spot of maroon in the crevice of a snow shoe imprint. Fortunately, this was corn snow and plenty cold enough that my phone wasn't phased by lying there for an hour.

I snatched it up in both hands, held it to my chest, and literally cried me a small puddle.They were tears of relief and great, great thanks. It was such a little thing in light of what is really important, but in that moment, it was important to me.

It's weird too because even though I'm eligible for an upgrade, I have this obsession about waste. I just can't stomach it. I mean, I wring the crap out of my Carmex tube to get the last smidge and THEN snip off the top to get another two weeks out of it. You'd think I'd grown up in the Depression I am that good. Or weird, whatever. Guess it's just how I was brought up. For as long as I can remember, I knew that the word "frugal" didn't mean "cheap." It means that nothing goes to waste. It's being economical in the use of resources. A perfectly good cell phone out rusting in the woods is just a sad, sad thought.

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