My Favorite Word

I have a favorite word. Is that weird?

nevertheless - adverb - In spite of that; nonetheless; however

Whenever I hear it, it always reminds me of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane. "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will but Yours be done." Luke 22:42

Jesus expresses Himself pretty succinctly here, but do you know how stressed out you have to be to sweat drops of blood? If I were praying, it would have gone a bit differently.

Hey God it's me. I know You must be pretty busy up there with that whole omnipresent thing You have going, but if you could spare a minute I'm having a bit of a situation down here. I don't know if You noticed but I lost my job. Yeah, the reason they gave me was "skill set mismatch to position." Really guys? "Skill set mismatch?" Don't tell me that. Don't tell me that I can't do the job that I've been doing for two years! I know I can do it. I've been doing it! And I can't get a new job because whenever I tell them that I'm planning on serving You in Romania, they tell me that they can't hire me. They want someone that's going to be in town, and will never take risks and leave the country. Ug. Oh, now that I have no job and no money my car broke down and it's going to need a hundred and fifty dollar battery on top of the oil change that it needs. And I thought You were blessing me with a nice parking space that one day I came home late and there was one space left, but it turns out that the next morning was the one day each month that they do street sweeping in front of my apartment. So now I have this $50 ticket which I can't afford unless I don't eat for a month. Okay, okay, okay. I cut all the fat. I have a budget that I can live off of. As long as I only spend money on food, gas, and bills, and I ignore all social activities that cost money, and I throw away all my plans to have any hobbies ever, I should be okay. It's a very sad existence to live off of peanut butter and honey for three meals a day, but I will survive. What's this? An unexpected $500 car insurance bill?? Argh! I can't take this anymore! lkajsoihepa niuniusnpoiejranv;aks;a
;lkanpoirvn a;lks jpoieyslkfjh glksiusn oiun sun lskjnf iunber iubajhfg

NEVERTHELESS

NEVER

THE

LESS

Not my will, but YOURS be done.

There's power in that word. It's like it takes all of that garbage that you were stressing about and throws it out the window. It completely reverses the situation. It says, "Look, I know you're dealing with stuff. We're all dealing with stuff. But in spite of all of that, I choose Jesus."

I think of that every time I hear the word. It doesn't matter what I'm dealing with. It always succeeds in putting my focus back onto Jesus. As long as it does that, it'll always be my favorite word.


PS, defenestrate is my second favorite word.

Countdown to Romania: 26 days