the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.......

We recently went on a cross country trip.  From East to West!  You know, the kind where the so-called roads are supposed to be very exciting and 4x4ish......well, "they" said the "road" will be tarred by next year and we wanted to see it before all those roadworks will ruin the countryside for the next couple of years  It took us two days!  .....in any case this is besides the point actually....
On this trip, i had a lot of time to think and ponder while bumping along....

Ususally life has some good and some bad.  And then some ugly.  Like sweet and sour, bitter and sweet.  But like food that is left out in the tropical heat soon become rotten, so too if i focus too much on the bad, things turn ugly.  Well, this is excactly how this trip was - filled with good and bad, but when bad was left unchecked, well, it got ugly!  Let me give a few examples:

We were in the "fastest growing" city in Africa and thought that buying some much needed supplies would be a great idea!  Well, in the end that is kind of all it was - just a great idea!  We had to stand in line at the ATM for hours!  And then only get a small amount of money.  The nice foodstuffs were sooo expensive we could just buy enough basic stuff to last us until we got home again.  The Good  of it was that we didn't starve and made it home again - eating the last of the snacks as we drove into our village.  We had some really good meals with friends and could prepare some wonderful bbq's too!  But the bad soon became the Ugly beacuse all i could think was - What a waste of time! - i was so dissapointed that i didn't see the Good at all!  I wasn't content with wat God did give.....

Here is another example, to my shame....

We went to the beach for 3 days before heading back home again.  Picture this: white, white beaches, no people (exepct some vendors and fishermen), palm tress, the bluest of blue seas!  It is truly extremely beautiful!  We had a great beach house made from bamboo, palm leaf roof, even air conditioning!  This was all the Good!  Can there be the Bad in this setting?  Well, yes and they came in the bodies of tiny....fleas!  Fleas in the beds, on the pillows!  Yikes!  Also, they sprayed the nets with bugspray which made me cough and cough and cough....aarrghhh!  In the bluest of blue seas there wese also lots and lots of island grass floating around, washing over you - suffice to say, i didn't enjoy swimming in this green stuff!
The Bad quickly became the Ugly, i am sad to say.

LAter i found out that around this time, a friend started praying for me (promted by the Holy Spirit) The Lord saw  i needed some help!  I was only focusing on the Ugly - no Good did i see in any of this!  I was walking back to the house when it dawned on me - I was just negative at the moment - everything was just ....Uglly!  And so, slowly, but surely i forced myself to start to acknowlegde the Good.  I had to force myself out of my pit of deep, dark thoughts.....not that i could have done it alone, oh, no, i totally give God the Honour for helping me see the state i was in!  And subsequently helping me out of it!

Well, i guess that was the biggest lesson for me and it kind of accumulated on this trip until it nearly exploded and even if it was only for this lesson, then it was double worthwhile going all that way!

Life always has the Good, and the Bad, but keep a careful tab on the Bad so that it doesn't become the Ugly.  It is very easy to fall into the Ugly's pit!

bella, a pessimist that needs to see the bright side more!