The Great Redeemer

Wow God, you really can redeem anything, and for that reason I praise You, thank You, and love You all the more.

Today I wasn't feeling quite as joyful or lighthearted as I've been almost every day this semester. I think it was due to some relational issues with certain people and the things they did or said to me lately that really hurt or bothered me, and those things were lugging at my heart and sorta suppressing my mood today. Even during small group I was pretty quiet and wanted to cry during certain parts as we were reading through Scripture.

2 Thessalonians 3:13 tells us, "And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right." Sometimes it really is hard to keep on "doing the right thing". All my life I've been called or looked upon as the "goody two-shoes" who always does right, but seriously, it's not easy. Especially when it comes to loving people who are hard to love. Seriously man. If it weren't for the love of Jesus Christ, I really would have no capacity or ability to even remotely love people who are hard to get along with, people who I feel resentful towards, people who have hurt me, people who I don't feel comfortable around, people who make me mad...

So tonight right before small group started (all the sisters were already over at my apartment and were sitting at the living room table), I entered my room and was secretly crying a little because I was already feeling sorta bummed in my heart, plus a minute ago my dad had just called to notify me that I no longer have health insurance (LAME!!!). I guess that was just the final straw that broke the camel's back and unleashed the tears in my eyes. ='(

I tried to wipe my eyes and fan my red face in the bathroom so that I would look normal because I really don't enjoy crying in front of people (plus, I've done that enough last semester). Thankfully, God allowed me to still be able to be attentive during small group and be blessed by it.

After all the small group sisters left, I ate a 2nd dinner of spicy ramen noodles because I was still pretty hungry. Then I randomly sat down on the coach and started a serendipitous conversation with the guest we had over at our apartment, who is also a Christian and she's from Taiwan. This actually turned out to be the highlight of my evening. We were able to talk about our spiritual matters, share prayer request, and I had shared with her some of my struggles and tough things I've been dealing with lately, which were contributors to my "bad day". We actually talked for quite a long time and even prayed together. I'm very thankful for this Taiwanese sister and thank God for her faith, despite the fact that she comes from a country were less than 2% of the population knows Christ. Even though I've only met her a couple of days, I hope that we can keep in touch and mutually spur each other on.

Wow God, thanks for how my day turned out. Even though there were some tears in the middle, you totally redeemed it at the end. (Oh yeah, and thanks God for helping me survive the debate in Chinese class about Obama's proposed bill on healthcare.) Thank you for being my Great Redeemer and for having first redeemed me from sin and death. Please continue to remind me of your Great Love so that I may continue to reflect that to others around me. And please give me additional grace to love those who are tougher to love.