Sunday morning, new week

It´s Sunday morning. It´s 8am, which isn´t terribly early, but right now feels really early. :)

Last week was pretty rough, as some of you know. I guess there was one big frustrating thing that happened and about a million smaller ones. Ever have days, weeks, months like that?

It culminated last night. Our youth group has a Bible class Saturday nights, and I always go. I love to go. So even though yesterday was truly craptacular and I was in a horrible mood and so tired, I set out to go. I left a little too late, so I missed my bus by a couple of minutes and had to wait 25 more. In the rain. In my "looks waterproof but really isn´t" jacket. And from my bus stop it´s still a 15 minute walk to church, in the rain. So I arrive 40 minutes late to find not a soul there. Oh how disheartening. I sat on the steps of the church and cried a little.

I sat there about 20 minutes, just thinking. I´m not sure what I was thinking, but I think "woe is me" would sum it up nicely.

So I started home. In the rain. And by this point it was really raining.

By the time I get to the bus station, I´m completely soaked. When I take the bus to my house, it lets me off at the gate and I still have another 15 minute walk to my house. So I made the executive decision to splurge on a taxi.

As Murphy´s law would have it, I got the strangest taxi. The car acted like it was going to die at any moment, struggling to conquer every speedbump. I envisioned myself pushing the car along the road... in the rain. And the driver was SLOW! At one point I started laughing because it was truly insane. Then to add insult to an injurous night, he was like, "You´re not Brazilian, are you, because you can´t speak our language well." Thank you, sir, may I have another?

Frustrating day. Week. We all have them.

But it´s Sunday morning now... a new week! I want nothing more than to crawl back into bed and stay there all day. But I won´t. In a few minutes I´ll get dressed and start the journey to church all over again. Because I need to. I need to go and see the faces of the people I love so much and who love me. I need to be hugged and kissed and loved on by the body of Christ. I need to sing with my friends and share in communion with them, and I need to laugh with everyone about what happened last night.

I think the natural reaction to when you feel bad and want to hibernate is to do so, but my experience has been that when you don´t want to go to church is when you need to go the most. Time after time this has been my experience... when I´m down, frustrated busy, stressed, whatever... if I make the time for God and my Christian family, I am always blessed.

So I´m off. I hope you shared your Sunday with your family, too.