Embracing the Sweat

It’s not the heat of the deep south, the tropics or the high desert, but the scorch of summer in the Balkans. My apartment, for instance, is a steady 83 degrees – even with the old wall-mounted air-conditioner on full-blast in the living room. Some nights it’s so hot that the outside air is stale and murky, the inside air the same and the air-conditioner useless.

Even cooking in my kitchen is no fun and worth considering eating only cold salads for the remainder of summer. [In my kitchen during the summer it’s normally around 90 degrees as the sun beats on it for most of the day. Yesterday the indoor thermometer read 97 degrees after making fajitas].

Inevitably, though, each year I learn to embrace the sweat. I can’t really explain it, but there comes a moment when you just accept that it’s hot and sticky, the discomfort of it all (wet shirts, wet face and wet hair) and actually adapt to it. Living with it rather than against it.

When I first moved here to the Balkans, there was absolutely no reprieve from the heat—at home, in the field office, in stores, etc. Even cold drinks seemed scarce, at room temperature and with no ice. Everywhere the summer heat extended its tentacles and squelched out every ounce of cool that might have been found. The reason for me being here, though, helped to keep things in perspective, and I learned embrace the discomfort with a smile and sense of humor.

Embracing or adapting to certain discomforts is just one of the things I’ve learned to do since coming here to the Balkans. I’m convinced I’m exactly where God wants me to be, doing what He has for me to do. For Him, I’ll do anything, even embrace the sweat.

[Incidentally, after four summers of working in field offices that were more like saunas, the new field office actually has air and it’s SO wonderful and I’m grateful for the reprieve it gives.]