"...Lord, Make me Stronger"

Recently, a friend of mine told me about a sermon he heard at camp this summer. In this sermon, the speaker examined the difference between American believers and those in third world countries when faced with trials. Perhaps because we have adequite provision, when faced with trail, an American will ask, "Lord, make this load lighter." Someone who has dealt with a quantity of hardship is more inclined to ask, "Lord, make me stronger." Though this may contain a good deal of insight, it's not the point I wish to make. With this thought in mind, I caught myself thinking I'd like a lighter load.
Here's the story: every year I devote a weekend to work a Greek Festival at the Orthadox Church near our house. It's a lot of hard work. Under normal conditions, it's 14 hours of work each day (just a weekend- 3 days) and there are plenty of workers... so it's bearable. This year, the church decided they would hire less workers and the 2 workers helping me were 1. squeemish, and 2. indolent. On saturday, the busiest day, each of the 30 odd trash barrels we have to empty is scattered around the festival grounds and filled every 10 minutes after it was emptied; therefore, common math says each barrel had to be emptied every 20 seconds (not mentioning the four minutes it took to wheel the trash cart over to the dumpster). Clearly, though emptying trash seems like it's a mindless task, it takes a well-oiled machine to do it on this particular occasion (and I'm sure it's equally as well managed by those in the profession of waste management). I organized the bags each person would empty and even arranged breaks during the two hours of hype in which the most popular attractions are the garbage cans (as though the pope himself says "garbage... dump now"(that was an awful Catholic joke. I try to be funny; I swear. Btw, it's Orthadox, not Catholic... I know lol )).
Well, here's the thing, just the three of us were doing a good job, working hard--; the cart was centrally located. However, the break that my coworkers took lasted half an hour before I coincidentally lugged the cart past the two of them, who were talking with a guy parking cars. I didn't even say anything, but to add insult to injury, one sarcastically vociferated "Keep up the good work. How's for a round of applause!" over towards me. Then they clapped... and laughed (at me, not with me). Well there it is; I felt gross, I had been working hard, and I wanted to throw in the towel. And then that sermon came to mind--I swear you hear things in church or in conversation and read these things in Scripture to encourage you in these trying moments. At that moment, when I asked God for strength (strength is perceived and originates in the mind, not the muscles) with a full intention of finishing the night with or without help before I got to the dumpster, fireworks started. I laughed and smiled. That bit of motivation kept my spirits high for the rest of the night. And all I can say is, "God is good!"