The Cure for What Ails You

6 September 2008

Brrrr. It's 34 degrees here at my deployed location! Oh...wait...that's in Celcius. Which would make it 932 degrees Fahrenheit!!! No, wait. Scratch that. It's 93.2 Fahrenheit. I didn't see the decimal point. It only feels like 932.

Oh, how I long for the cold, blustery days when I was in Ireland.

So, we landed shortly after midnight, local time. Unfortunately, our plane crashed on landing - JUST KIDDING! Our plane landed just fine, but was parked about 4 feet from where it should have been parked. So we made a big circle (the plane did) which took about 45 minutes. Really.

So we deplaned at about 1am - which is 5pm MBC (my body clock). But I haven't really slept in a long time, so I'm pretty tired. Not my usually bundle of joy. Anyway, we unloaded our luggage, which was a fun teamwork thing, although we were drenched with sweat.

We filled out some paperwork - which I think is funny, that we filled out this pretty important paperwork when we were most bleary-eyed and exhausted. Anyway, we finally got done at about 4am local time (8pm MBC).

Since I'm an adult human and wasn't really designed for sleeping upright (i.e. on the plane), I was pretty tired. Did I mention that already?

So, my sponsor picked me up from the passenger terminal and gave me a quick windshield tour of the base. Again, I think that's funny, because I don't remember ANYthing about what he told me or showed me. All I could think was, "Please stop talking and driving and let me go to sleep. Yes, yes, that's interesting...Where's my room? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Commander so-and-so. Got it. Where's my room?"

My sponsor, Chaplain David, is an awesome bundle of energy and I can already tell that folks around this base love him very much. Even though it felt like it took longer, eventually we did crash at about 4:30am.

I regret to inform you that I did NOT take a shower before getting into bed. Gross.

Shannon will vouch for me. I must have been really tired.

Anyway, I titled this post, "The Cure for What Ails You" because it seems like there's nothing that a good night's sleep and a warm shower won't cure. And that's what I got. About 6 1/2 hours of sleep and good shower. Man, O Man, what a difference.

So now it's 11pm local time and it actually feels like 11pm MBC.

I accomplished some mundain but important inprocessing today. Met some of the other incoming and outgoing Chapel staff.

Went to the contemporary worship service at 7:30pm. I like contemporary services - if they're done right and not just 8 songs and a 20 minute message. Anyway, we sang the song "This Is The Air I Breathe", which I like okay. But, as often happens (because I'm so musical), there were some lyrics that made me cry. You know, the chorus that goes,

"And IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII, I'm desperate for You.
And IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII, I'm lost without You."

That made me cry. And if I wasn't in a public place right now, I'd cry again. (But I don't want someone to come up to me and ask, "Would you like to see a Chaplain?").

But those lyrics just reminded me of how weak and broken and sinful and idolatrous I am. There are thousands of troops here who need to hear the Gospel and be loved like Jesus would love them. And I'm so incapable of that kind of love.

I can't do this alone and I can't do this in my own strength - which is what I try to do all the time.

I need so much more than a good night's sleep and a shower. I need the sweetness and power of the Gospel.

Thank you, Lord, for reminding me how desperately I need you and your Spirit every moment of every day.

Peace,
Michael

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention - I sweated away 3 pounds today. I added back one pound just now, 'cause I ate a Subway while I was writing this. For the last few years, since I've lived in Biloxi, I've maintained that humans were not intended to live in such a hot, humid, swampy, bug-infested climate as Biloxi. Well....at least there are no biting gnats here. Just camel spiders and scorpions.