Vacation in Paris and Bordeaux

For the past two weeks, I've enjoyed a wonderfully restful vacation.  I saw a little more of Bordeaux, the city that I live in, though not quite as much as I'd planned to see (due to catching a cold in the middle of the vacation and staying home for a few days).  We've had lots of visitors from the US during this time: On May 25, a musical missions team from Bob Jones University came out to minister to us - we got to be their very first place to minister in! They were such a blessing to us, not only in their music, but also in their eagerness to serve and willingness to try to communicate around the language barrier. 

We've also had two other young ladies come out for short-term missions trip: Esther, a senior at BJU, is here for over a month with BMM's Focus on France program; and Alli, a high school student from Ohio, spent three weeks with the missionaries here in Pessac (the suburb of Bordeaux where I live).  The Lord worked out the timing of our various travels and activities just perfectly so that the three of us were able to spend three days in Paris.  We had an incredibly fun time (see my photos of the trip here)!  We saw many of the famous sites in Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, Luxembourg Garden, the Pantheon, and many more.  We also climbed tons of stairs (over 1,400 on Friday alone!) but it was worth it to have some tired muscles for the amazing views we saw of the beautiful city of Paris. 

Which brings me to an experience I had which reminded me of a spiritual truth.  As we started up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower, I was as excited as my companions to be climbing up this famous monument - and also very glad that we had just cut a three-hour wait in line down to half an hour by taking the long way up - when I suddenly remembered something that I'd been conveniently trying to forget: I'm scared of heights!  It's a fear that has come along with adulthood as I've gotten more aware of "what-ifs"; but at any rate, the Eiffel Tower is high enough to make anyone dizzy.  However, I didn't want to miss out on any of the fun :-), so I kept climbing.  We went all the way to the very top of the tower, and I honestly enjoyed myself immensely.  Finally we descended and moved on to climb up Notre Dame Cathedral, and later at sunset, the Arc de Triomphe.  Those sites were not nearly so high as the Eiffel Tower, but still high enough to get a great view of the city.  As I walked around them, I realized that after the top of the Eiffel Tower, these other heights didn't seem nearly as scary as they normally would have been! 

Standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower

So it is with our spiritual battles over temptation and discouragement: victory in one battle makes the next one a little easier; while spiritual failure makes it more difficult to resist the next temptation.  So, as we say in French, "Bon courage!" (="good courage") - let's have courage to resist temptation, knowing that each victory makes us stronger soldiers for the Lord.