Lessons from a Drinking Fountain

I am currently a college student who resides in college dorms.  There are definitely several pros and cons to living in such close quarters to so many other people.  Sometimes the bathroom is gross.  Sometimes I just want to get away from people and it feels impossible.  Sometimes my room feels ridiculously warm or ridiculously cold.  Sometimes I don't want to leave my room to get a cup of water.  But I can meet people just by going to the bathroom.  (Last semester I helped someone with math at least once a week and it all started because we were in the bathroom at the same time.)  I can take part in floor activities like going bowling, ice skating, or having root beer floats while watching "The Puppy Bowl."  I can run down the hall to ask other people when I'm not sure how to do homework.  I can take out my trash without stepping foot outside.  I can hear piano music live in the lobby (One time there was even a violinist in the lobby with the piano).  I can walk to the lobby to print things quickly and efficiently rather than going to the library.  I can go downstairs to use a meal swipe for food.

All of this being said, there is one thing that has really bothered me about living in a dorm.  The drinking fountain.  For several weeks, the drinking fountain on my floor has not been functioning properly.  It is very hard to fill a cup of water with the drinking fountain because it doesn't have the water pressure that it needs.  This was a daily activity that was excessively annoying to perform.  Every week there was someone who came in and tried to fix it.  And every week, the frustration remained.  The floor as a whole was getting more and more annoyed, including myself.

Now, our drinking fountain is out of order and has a sign telling us not to use it.  I now have to go out to the lobby or up or down a floor in order to fill my cup with water.  This is relatively annoying.  Now that my floor's water fountain doesn't work at all, I wish I could have it back, even if it would be in the broken, can't-get-my-cup-all-the-way-full state.  However, I still have drinking water.  That is more than a lot of people in the world have.

I need to remain grateful for the little things in life.  This will help me remain joyful.  I should be thankful at all times, not just at holidays and when stuff is going 100% right.  In fact, remaining grateful even when things are going wrong is a better witness to the world.  God doesn't ask us to shine only when everything is good but also when things are going wrong.  Even if it is something as small as a water fountain that doesn't work properly or at all.

This is something that is very easy to forget when you live in a college dorm, or anywhere in the first world.  I'm receiving a college education that only a small fraction of the world's population will ever be able to have a chance to have.  I can go downstairs and enjoy more food than I could possibly eat.  I can walk into my room and flip on a light switch and work until late at night.  If I have a question, I have full access to the world wide web almost anywhere I go and search for the answer.  But yet, when my drinking fountain is a little bit slow, I get upset.  I want water in my cup.  I want it now.  This drinking fountains seems like the worst thing ever, even though it still gave me cool, clean, refreshing water.  It's amazing to me how fast I begin to complain and forget about every other blessing that surrounds me.

Today, I'm going to drink a cup of water from a drinking fountain, and I will choose to be thankful.  I'm going to eat food made at a dining court that might not taste like my mom's home cooking, and I'm going to be thankful.  I'm going to go to my lectures (even the really bad ones), and I'm going to be thankful for the opportunity to learn.  Today, I choose to thank the Lord for the gifts that He has chosen to give me.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo