Met With Mercy, Met With Grace

i'm unbelievably blessed by this girl



"There are neighbors or others who continually say evil things about us, who abuse us, who openly wrong us, and torment and harass us whenever they can. At the mere sight of them, the blood rushed to our heads, a terrible threatening anger. It is the enemy who provokes such a thing in us. But now we must be on guard. Now we must remember quickly: I was met with mercy, not by people, no, but by God, and Jesus Christ died for our enemy—and all at once everything is different. Now we hear: repay no one evil for evil. Do not lift up your hand to strike, do not open your mouth in anger, but be still. For what can those who do you evil do to harm you? It is not you whom it harms, but it does harm to them. No Christian is harmed by suffering injustice. But perpetuating injustice does harm. Indeed, the evil one wants to accomplish only one thing with you; namely, that you also become evil. But were that to happen, the evil one would have won. Therefore, repay no one evil for evil. For in doing so, you harm not the evil one, but yourself. "

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

before you start to worry, let me just say that i haven't been tormented or abused by anyone while here.
but this quote can exeplify a struggle that i've been dealing with for about a month now. i' ve have been very frustrated from day one with the attitudes and behaviours of lots of kids in our group. many of them have no interest in learning hte language, the culture, etc. and act like complete elementary schoolers when we are out in public. needless to say, that gets old quick and i was having lots of trouble having patience for them and loving them. so one night, i was talking with maggie about this, who ps, is the most amazing roomate, and she was just like, 'yeah, they are obnoxious and rude and unlovable, but that's how we were before Christ.' gosh, she just really blew it home for me and even more, that night i went home and was reading my dietrich bonhoeffer book and the reading for that night was the above one. pretty sweet how that works, huh?

so i've been given so much grace, not only from JC, but also let me just tell you how much i've been given from maggie. these past few weeks have been very difficult for me, i've had trouble emotionally and mentally, and i can't say that i've been nice every day. bad moods and grumpyness have come a lot quicker than usual and i have honestly treated her like crap at times. but the other day i got back from class after an especially bad past day, and there was a letter on my bed from maggie. in it she proceeded to tell me how great she thinks i am, how thankful she is to be living with me and how excited she is to see where my life goes in the future. i mean, this is the last thing i ever deserved to get. i deserved to get a letter telling me how much i stink and how hurtful i have been, not the complete opposiste. so here, i have been met with grace and mercy once again.

so that's it for now, just a few thoughts to tell you how great my roommate is is how thankful that i am for GRACE!!!