Saturday, November 21, 2009

Grace like rain

So, I haven't written on this blog in a while, so I'm not sure I can claim to have a tone for this page. But if I did, I would say the average tone is cavalier, and a little trite. But I want to break from this a little and share two instances of extreme grace that I experienced this past week.

Monday morning on the way to work, I called my parents just to tell them about the developments regarding the pipes leaking in my basement (another story, and not a HUGELY interesting one). While talking with them, I ran straight through a red light. Didn't even see it. But the cop that was waiting at the corner sure did, and pulled me over butt quickly. I hung up with my parents immediately and pulled out my license and registration, thankful that I actually had those on me, although still unsure why I had been pulled over. I suspected it was because it is now illegal to drive and talk on the phone in Illinois without a hands-free set. The lady cop came to my window and asked if there was a reason I'd run the light. My eyes got wide and I told her no, I just completely missed it. She took my information and I sat pondering just how much this ticket would set me back, getting more and more worked up. When she came back I was in tears. She gave me back my information and must have felt bad for me - despite it being a fine morning before this event, I didn't have makeup on and was wearing my glasses - so she informed me that I was obviously distracted and needed to calm down, and she was sorry she couldn't do more for me than let me off and advise my job that I'd be late. She probably thought I'd been dumped or suffered some sort of loss. I guess I'm kind of glad I look so disheveled in the mornings, now... But anyways, grace when I could have gotten a ticket for running a light and another one for being on the phone. Also, my mom, that same morning, saw an accident at her bus stop in which someone ran a light and t-boned a car coming through the intersection, so it could have been a terrible terrible morning. But I was blessed with a lesson and grace.

THEN, Tuesday night I was up late helping Tim with a paper. Late as in I didn't get home until 1:45ish. I am usually in bed by 10:30 if I can help it. Overnight, my cell phone died, which serves as my alarm, so I didn't have an alarm go off at six. Due to my sleep schedule being severely thrown off, my internal clock didn't go off either. When my coworkers tried to call to find out why I wasn't at school at 8, they couldn't get through. I woke up at 9 AM when one of my coworkers and friends came to my house and began ringing my doorbell, calling my name, and banging on my door. I flew downstairs and opened the door to see a huge look of relief on her face. When I didn't show and they couldn't reach me, they feared the worst, and I really scared everyone at work, as well as a few friends and my sister whom they had called as well... They were so happy I was ok that I think they were disinclined to give me a hard time about sleeping through first period. Plus my students were fabulous - when they heard the situation, they immediately made a prayer circle and prayed that I was ok, then showed the principal how to do devotions, and afterward made little groups to plan how to raise money for our World Vision Christmas gift. I was so pleased I nearly cried when I got in. Grace, again, from my students, coworkers, and especially my boss.

I don't deserve grace much - I'm still ungrateful, disobedient, unpleasant, and selfish a good deal of the time. But God is faithful, and I hope that this week has taught me a few lessons. And hopefully next time I'll be more apt to see and be thankful for God's daily show of love and grace for me, rather than waiting until extreme times catch my attention.

Thanks for listening? Love love...