Lessons from the Porta-Potty

I am preparing to spend a month in China with Miss Language. I have never prepared for a big trip, (except, of course, the Ultimate Journey). 

I expected to have to buy a backpack, get a passport and visa, check on immunizations, make many lists, and get some lighter travel-friendly clothes and a new journal. Maybe even pick up a few phrases in Mandarin. But I did not expect a change in the way I feel about using porta-potties. 

One of the things Miss Language has told me to prepare myself for is Asian toilets. These are not raised seats, just a hole over which you strategically squat. Paper is not provided, and when you use the paper you hopefully remembered to bring - you don't flush but put it in a trash can. And there is sometimes a dipper and bucket provided for flushing. Very not me. 

And so, when I entered the porta-potty the other night at Mr Music's baseball game, and was met by The Well Known Odor and saw a lack of tissue, I was surprised to find myself thinking, not "I'm out of here", but "Oh, good, a chance to practice."

Which makes me wonder, of course, about the more spiritual applications of preparing for a Journey and seeing life in that light. As is so often the case, C S Lewis has something to point the way, from God in the Dock: 

If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it's not so bad.

If I am willing to prepare for squatty potties, how much better to prepare for glory? What Well Known Odors and lacks should I be glad to welcome as needed practice?

~ ~ ~ 

II Corinthians 4:17 ~ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

Hope, Ice Cream, Bilbo, PotC, and Aslan

Yesterday we took the crew to see The Hobbit, as Bilbo and company have finally arrived at the theater that fits our budget. 

On the way we drove past an ice cream stand. The owner  has signs up letting you know it is getting near for a couple miles ahead in each direction, and also signs afterward, which let you know you have missed your chance for some ice cream. Signs like "You Just Passed Betty Jo's Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt." I thought about asking to stop for a photo but did not want to miss the beginning of Bilbo's adventure, so I missed my opportunity.  :-P

Which all got me thinking about The Opportune Moment.*

Wouldn't it be nice, if, in real life, there were some sort of Jack-Sparrowlike announcement when you have just missed a golden opportunity that might give you a chance to go back and do it over? I mean, what if it turns out Betty Jo really does have the Best Ice Cream ever? Wouldn't you really rather know it and be able to turn back and get some?

But it doesn't work that way. We miss opportune moments and don't even know they were there. And there is what Aslan told Lucy in Prince Caspian, when she asked, "Am I not to know?" He said, "No. Nobody is ever told that." But he goes on to say, "You must all get up at once and follow me -- what will happen? There is only one way of finding out." 

That trust is a part of the hope we have. 

* For the word nerds reading this, it turns out the greeks have a word that fits in here, kairos - the right or opportune moment. I love that wikipedia says it "signifies a time between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens." I am trusting Christ to help me to recognize kairos when I see it.

The Superbowl Letters

Did you see the Mercedes ad from the superbowl? 

I watched it three or four times. The first time I noticed how much fun someone had doing up the contract in Latin. Homeschooling Moms notice things like that. And I noticed the nails, I think they are a nice touch, just quietly evil. 

I keep thinking about it, a few random things. Of course I think of The Devil and Daniel Webster. And I think about two old songs, Charlie Daniels Band's "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" and Terri Gibbs' "Somebody's Knockin'." But mostly I am wondering in terms of Lewis's  The Screwtape Letters - because my first instinct watching this ad is to think, Ha, the devil lost this round. But then I start thinking about pride. What sort of pride would it take to just take on the devil on your own power as this guy is doing? And would Lewis find that pride a bigger sin than signing the contract offered him? And how often do I take on Satan on my own strength?