Another Round of "I'm an Idiot on My Way to Istanbul"

(In case you have forgotten first round was several years ago when I showed up in Istanbul with only 14 dollars and had to beg the rest of the money for my Visa.)

This year, I came prepared. But then in Seattle, I lost my wallet. I still don't know how. By God's grace, I was with friends who were able to gather up enough cash for me to make my way back across the world. I felt horrible. All my enthusiasm (there hadn't been much) for travel was gone.

But that's not all! I got a two for one deal on losing stuff this time around. Somehow in an airplane or airport I (groggy, dazed, and half asleep) also managed to lose my camera. Fabulous, isn't it. So... instead of taking pictures around the beautiful and sunny city of Istanbul, I'm writing a blog post.

I rarely lose things. So why now? I hear the ever selfish question, "Why me, God?"

But God knows what he is doing. He is faithful. And I felt I had the answer as I read a passage from an anthology of George MacDonald's writing arranged by C.S. Lewis.

"For love loves unto purity. Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds. Where loveliness is incomplete, and love cannot love its fill of loving, it spends itself to make more lovely, that it may love more; it strives for perfection, even that itself may be perfected--not in itself, but in the object... Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love's kind, must be destroyed. and our God is a consuming fire."

I know my God loves me. And as he consumes the self-reliance, pride, and independence in my heart, it might hurt, like Eustace's dragon scales coming off. But this is only to make me more lovely and more like Christ.