The past two weeks have been up there among the most stressful experiences of my entire life. Between my Greek class, a changing work schedule, and losing my student ID and house key, plenty of things have been keeping me on my toes. I guess it's no surprise then that I greeted the weekend with even more enthusiasm than I normally would. But as I took a moment yesterday afternoon, and thought about the many blessings I've been given despite the challenges I've been faced with, I couldn't help but be grateful for the many opportunities I have.
I lost my house key and student ID on Labor Day. It was holiday, which meant there was no school, but I'd packed the day full of fun events, so I was running around all day. It wasn't until the following morning that I realized that during the activities the day before I had somehow misplaced the lanyard that held my house key and student ID card. For the next week I frantically looked everywhere I'd been that day- work, the music practice rooms, the church building, my friend's house, and not only did I empty my backpack four times, but my housemates and I went through our entire apartment with a fine-tooth comb.
Nothing.
It wasn't just important because I needed my house key; my student ID was how I got attendance for one of my classes! I even informed my teacher and Peer Mentor that my ID was missing and that it might take a while to find it.
That's when it started. Immediately people began to tell me just to go and get a new ID. While this may have made sense to them (after all I could just go to the second floor of the main school building and come back down with half of my problems solved), I wasn't willing to pay 25 dollars just to get a 2-inch piece of plastic! I didn't have 25 dollars at the time, and this wasn't even touching the fact that I'd lost my house key. Soon the constant comments of "You should get a new one" started to make me even more stressed than I already was.
Sometimes I think life is like this. We go through life until we run into a problem, and then we discover that what everyone else thinks is the solution to our problem is something that we can't do. The world thinks it has the answer, but due to circumstances beyond our control, the answer we are given will not help us. We have to look for another way, find another solution, even when those around us seem to think it's impossible.
By the Tuesday after I'd lost my house key and my ID card, I felt I had done everything I could. I'd scoured the campus, searched the places I'd been, looked in my house, I had gone to security, looked in all of the lost and founds, and spoken to everyone I could think of who might be able to help me. I had prayed earnestly every morning and night that I would be able to find it. I had done all that I could. Now I needed to let the Lord do the rest.
And so it was. I was sitting at a friend's house taking a quiz, trying as hard as I could to think about anything other than my missing items, when the friend I'd studied with the day I lost them messaged me in all caps, exclaiming excitedly that she'd found them.
This is how the Lord works. He will help us with whatever it is. Whether it's a 2-inch piece of plastic that helps us get attendance in a class, or a contact lens dropped on the bathroom floor, he cares. He cares because we care. He cares enough to send the trials and then to give us the solution to the problem. But we can only reach the solution if we put in the work to get there.
After a long week of stress, and worry, and faith, I felt like flying down the stairs to my friend's apartment, where my friend (who was sick at the time) had found my house key and student ID in a place that she had already looked. I knew then and there that the Lord had given me the trial and had waited to relieve me of the stress I was feeling until he was sure I had learned the lesson he wanted to teach me. I may never really know what the lesson was, or even if it was for me directly, but I am incredibly grateful that he cares about something so seemingly insignificant.
He has allowed the stresses and fears of the past two weeks to melt away slowly, not just for me, but for those around me as well. From financial problems that have blessedly gotten better, to my roommate getting engaged last weekend, the Lord answers trials with blessings.
You may not feel as though the problems in your life can be solved the way that others think they will be, and it's possible you're right. But the Lord always has a solution, so just keep trying, just keep working, and it will all turn out right in the end.
