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we have been here in Paris long enough that we have a routine.
wake up.
go to the park.
stretch.
run.
stretch.
come back home.
shower.
dress.
eat.
school……. you get the picture.
however, amidst the norm today, there was presented a minor road block….or shall i say, metro block.
we had just gotten to the “school” part of the routine when all of a sudden, our metro- Line RER B- had ceased to function.
packed as sardines in the smelly metal tube, where personal bubbles don’t exist, where Paris PDA is at its finest, and where there is a tense, awkward elevator silence that lingers… and the space age-like, air tight doors are not closing…. we wait…..for an uncomfortably long time (about 5 minutes) until a pleasant female french voice speaks softly and calmly over the silent chaos….not completely sure exactly what she was saying until every sardine was flooding from the premises as if someone had said “bomb”
it was time to find another route.
by that time we were due in class 5 minutes ago… when all of a sudden we heard English- as gillian calls it “music to mine ears”:
“i really wish i could tell what everyone was saying”
(angels chorus)
bingo.
3 other girls, from Florida, were on their way to class as well…except they only arrived in Paris 5 days ago and they were even more lost than we were.
as it turns out, Gillian and I headed out to ground level, found us an “autobus”, connected with 2 other metro lines, and were only 35 minutes late to class.
Thankfully our teachers are the most laid back, easy going, people you will ever meet:
-he said he had figured i had found myself a French boyfriend- tardy excused. (He’s American) : also, i don’t know exactly how i feel about that comment…
even in this high stress situation, this morning God gave me grace to have humor amidst the disruption. i couldn’t help but see the situation as a metaphor.
we are all on this crazy metro of life. shoved, pushed, vulnerable, swaying with the curves and bends of time, uncomfortable…unless you get a seat, but still, sitting doesn’t eliminate the reek that invades your senses on this underground train.
we have a destination that we plan for ourselves but sometimes our plan is different from the one that God has mapped out.
Why are we so surprised when those plans aren’t the same?
Why are we so surprised when the metro doors don’t close and the metallic cylinder doesn’t rattle to life?
why are we so self-centered? was the metro created to work JUST for us and no one else? will we sit on the same metro until it works again? or will we take these inconveniences in stride, go find the way, and even unite together as Christians and encourage one another to seek the truth?
i think sometimes He uses instances like this to show us His sovereignty. to show us His control. and i don’t know about you…but i sure am glad He has it, because i would do a horrendous job at steering that metro…
so i say live life, and ride the metro with the best of them, but NEVER get comfortable on the metro.
because hopefully your final destination is not St. Remy or Charles De Gaulle.
“But our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a Savior , the Lord Jesus Christ” Philippians 3:19
