Not to be a “woman” here, but after a lot of spastic emotional trouble yesterday, I’ve decided to re-persue my Comparative Governments class. Which is actually really great because I can’t get my money back now if I drop it. I am so thankful for the goodness and comfort of good counsel and encouragement. Way to be, y’all. Way to be.
And I’m really grateful that this morning when I called One Stop at UC (the registrar’s office or something-what a hip cool name!) and found out there’s a procedure for un-dropping a class! Huzzah! Even my professor seemed pretty cool about trying to get it all sorted back to the way it was before. And, wonder of all wonders (or should I say, Grace of all graces?), the class lobbied for a push back of the midterm until Monday instead of tomorrow, so I can actually study and get some sleep tonight.
God. Is. Good.
Not that He wouldn’t have been just as good if I had had to keep my class dropped, or if my exam really had been tomorrow, or even if I hadn’t gotten counsel and encouragement. And I would like to think that I would be grateful to Him regardless of circumstances. He seemed to impress on me last night in prayer that no matter what happened today, He would be sovriegn over it and I should be grateful. And I should. Because there’s always something to be grateful for. I don’t even just mean the important and oft forgot things like the fact that I live in a safe place, that I have my needs provided for, that I’m blessed with compatriots and freedoms inherent to my country, that Natalie is, that my mother was part of the body of Christ and is therefore enjoying the joys of being reunited with her creator as are others I’ve known who are no more in physical form. All these are wonderful things to be thankful for, and more besides. But there is something to be thankful for even when things go so terribly wrong in my estimation. If those things are because of my actions, I can be grateful for the lesson. If those things are things I have no part in, there is an opportunity to be grateful for learning about the sovriegnty and sustainence of God.
And so, in this vein, I would like to share a little (and secular, I guess) anecdote about gratefulness when things were going badly. When I was overseas studying in Belfast, a few of my friends and I decided to go on a little weekend adventure to Scotland. On the Sunday night return, we had a quick train change on the way back through Glasgow to get to Ayr and catch the ferry to Northern Ireland. After we deboarded the train on Track One, in response to an announcement that the train to Ayr was leaving from Track Seven, we raced over to the opposing platform to catch it. We waited, and waited, and waited, while the train we had just been on flew out of the station within minutes of our stepping off it. After about fifteen minutes, we went to ask the station manager, sitting in a back room, to ask where the train to Ayr was. “Ack,” said he, with a shrug. The train for Ayr was the train we had just gotten off. The next would be by in three hours.
One of my friends was incensed! If we hadn’t been told at the station to change trains, we would have been ON the stupid train that went to Ayr already! And now?! We had to wait for THREE hours for another train?! And miss our ferry?! And not be back home till God knows when? She demanded to know what he was going to Do About It. He shrugged, a couple of other lads in the office with him chuckled, and she told him that he was totally out of line! She stormed out in a huff, banging the door closed behind her. I was standing in the corner just inside the door, thinking to myself, Sure, this sucks, but it isn’t as if anyone can change it now, is there? I smiled at the station manager as I followed my friend out of the office and said, “Thanks anyway!”
A few minutes later, as I was sitting on the train tracks settling in for a three hour wait by reading a book, the station manager came over and sat down a few feet from me. I looked up for a minute. He cleared his throat. “You have a really nice smile,” he said.
I rolled my eyes, inwardly. Ah, one of those guys . . . “Thanks,” I nodded awkwardly, and went back to my book.
“No, I mean it. It was right kind of you to say, Thanks.”
“No trouble,” I said, not looking up.
He scooted a little closer. I looked up and began reviewing kung fu positions in my mind. “I tell you what I’m going to do,” he said. “I have a friend who owns a cab company. I feel bad that you missed your train. I’ll call him up and he can take you to Ayr. Be there a lot faster than the train even.”
“Thanks, but I’m sure we don’t have the money for it. It’s a nice offer though, really,” I replied.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it,” He stood and held out his hand to help me stand. “Alright? Better round up your friends.”
And he did. The cab trip, which cost 85 pounds by the meter, wasn’t charged to us and we made our ferry. We even ended up on the ferry with some Celtic soccer fans and one of them gave me his hat. All in all, it was a nice night. And all thanks to being grateful.
P.S. By the way, being grateful to God? Totally better than a station manager.
Tags: back to school, Barabara Sue, Natalie Grace, thanksgiving, trust in God
I’m back from Amerika – you’re country is soooo cool.