Bad Things in the Middle of the Night

It's 4:30 a.m. as I type this, and I have not fallen asleep yet. Seems my body decided this night would be a good time to develop a slight fever along with some intense stomach cramps. Loads of fun. And, somehow, being sick all alone is just... lonelier. Ask Margo and she'll tell you that I'm a big baby when I'm sick. I like it when she looks after me. But instead I'm sitting here, feeling horrible, feeling tired, feeling lonely, and watching the hours creep by ever so slowly.

To make matters worse, I thought I'd distract myself by checking e-mail or something. (Yeah, right, someone's going to send me e-mail in the middle of the night.) Well, what do you know? There is a new message for me. It's from Margo. It starts off saying that it's not good news, so she decided not to call and wake me (if only she knew... I would have loved a call). Seems our potential buyer is having problems putting together the financing he needs. I can't go into details, but there's a good reason we've been waiting all week to hear from him. Apparently he's still working on it, still is interested in the house, and is still getting pressure/encouragement from his own agent. So it may all come together after all. But now we're being told not to get our hopes up.

Too late. My hopes were already up. *sigh* Lord, can we talk about that whole patience thing again?

Actually, even though I joke about it, I really am okay with being patient. I totally trust God. So even in the midst of feeling sick, tired, lonely, and now disappointed, there's this quiet joy and peace. In fact, the faithfulness of God is even more apparent in the silence of the middle of the night. There are no distractions; just the reality of a trustworthy, loving, gracious, forgiving, wise, all-powerful God.

Now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to go throw up or fall asleep or something. I promise I'll try to be more pithy soon... :)