it is one thing

It is one thing to be insanely infuriated with your rat, angrily throwing out chewed up produce, and craftily plotting his demise day and night.  

It is something else to head for the coffee maker in the golden light of morning and see a long nasty tail snaking out of the rat trap, and have no Matt to get the dead thing GONE.  (But we DO have a Sam.  Hallelujah.)

It's one thing to greatly miss your poppy.

It's something else to want to Mommy to type him an email that you dictate once an hour, like yesterday's...

"Lily wants you so bad, and poppy, you really have a new Nemo cup to bring me, and I want him to come back really soon, OK? and we should have something where we can all sleep together.  Today I got my uniform and mom sewed two names on it, it says Lily Ayars.  Do you really miss me or do you not miss me?  I want you to miss me, so if you come back, I will run and jump on you, and get the new cups and show my sister and mom.  I love you Poppy, dear, Poppy, I love you so bad, and I want you to come, me and Poppy.  Our family, and God, we can all be together.  With God.

Bye bye poppy.  bye bye 

LILY AYARS"

It is one thing to say we are all very safe, that we have never had any issues with security, and that I feel completely at peace about having our little girls here.

It is something else to remember--when there is no power from midnight to 6, no hint of comforting light whatsoever, watchmen and a doberman prowling the premises (suggesting that it is perhaps NOT as safe as thought), drums are pounding and chants are pouring from Noah's temple across the way, and friends won't stop asking, "aren't you scared at night?", and there is no comforting leg to put my foot on, no unspoken assumption that Matt will take care of us--that it is GOD who is our watch care and our security, He and He alone who guards and provides for our family...and then to sleep deeply in that truth.

It is one thing to strongly believe that our Haitian leadership at Emmaus is very capable, very responsible, and very called to do what needs done, the way it needs done.

It is something else to see them DO it, watch them fill the gap, see everyone come in early and stay late and work hard and execute well when Matt is lot bo... "on the other side".  

It is one thing to recognize and believe that it is only by His grace that we have gifts and talents, things we're good at, things that come easily, things that we love to do, things that we're personally passionate about.

But it's something else, isn't it, to realize and trust that it is ALSO only by His grace and for HIS purposes that we have things that are incredibly mundane...things that are difficult for us to do, things we have to try 10 times harder than others to do, and things that we personally don't enjoy, in our lives.  

And if, either way, it is by His grace and for His glory, then we have good reason, either way, to rejoice in the Lord.