Day 10: Call to Prayer and Cold Medicine

Today I woke up to the Call to Prayer at 5:30am with (what felt like) an elephant on my chest and a sore throat.  I think I have caught the inevitable cold that everyone in Mumbai seems to have at some point during monsoon season. Bummer. 

I stare at the ceiling. Ugh. I am not looking forward to this day already...and it has barely begun. I open my mouth to complain out loud to the dark, but my voice is gone. "Seriously?" I say to the darkness. BUT I have a choice. Continue to be agitated. Or be thankful. Can I be joyful when I'm sick at 5:30am with man's voice blaring in another language on a loud speaker outside my window? 

I choose to give thankfulness a try. "Thank You for waking me up to talk to You this morning. ...And thank You for cold medicine. Thank You for the friends that brought the cold medicine..." And I continue to give Him thanks until I fall asleep again.

Thankfully some friends from the States just brought me some good cold medicine. (I haven't found any here that works the same.)

So far I have found it impossible to be angry and thankful at the same time. Thankfulness leads to joy. And "joy transcends all other emotions" (to quote Ann Voskamp in One Thousand Gifts).

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night" Psalm 92:1-2