If Just One Person's Life...

I've been doing a bit of thinking recently, actually I usually do quite a bit of thinking. Anyway, I was speaking to someone recently who said that she was glad we accepted her at a time she had a few problems, even though as christians we probably shouldn't have. My response was to shrug and say I wasn't much of one for following rules. It didn't make sense to her that someone from my background would be willing to accept someone from her background.

So this is what got me thinking. I never really was concerned about whether I should or shouldn't be friends with this person. I knew I didn't agree with a lot of what she did but so, I was prepared to open up a little and so was she (the crossover for us was our children's friendship). It occurred to me while I was running today, and praying, that if my life can open up new possibilities to just one person then maybe things I've gone through aren't just a pain in my butt and a frustrating waste of time. Now this person isn't about to start going to church, and even I have trouble doing that, but she doesn't only think negative things about my kind of faith. Surely this is preaching by living.

Believe me when I say I don't use that phrase lightly, I do understand the weight behind it, I just wonder if the weight we've given it is the wrong sort. My thoughts on that concept have usually veered towards the idea that people will be attracted to the goodness and shining example of God that 'should' be in any good christian's life. Maybe the focus should instead be on living in a way that you can meet people where they are. Maybe allowing them to see the struggles and problems is just as important. Life for most people isn't smooth. For a lot it is a struggle in many different ways and sometimes I think as Christians we hide behind the idea that 'God will fix it' so we shouldn't tell others about it and shouldn't complain. This though is a facade we hide behind and it's very possible it is doing more damage than good.

I know this is kind of an unformed idea but for a very long time I have been hung up on this idea that to be a Christian I need to be the kind of people others (church goers) expect me to be and I have a lot of trouble being that person. However the type of person I am has opened up my friends heart and that can't be a bad thing.

End of an Era - Trying of Patience

These last few weeks have been fairly terrible at work. I probably shouldn't have agreed to stick it out to the end. I'm not the sort of person who tolerates stupidity easily and for the record things like "can you tell me how much this is?" followed by them wanting me to work our what 20% off $20 is, is something I consider stupid. And there has been a lot of stupid over the last how ever many weeks the store was closing. (FYI we shut the doors on friday just gone). I also consider "is everything on sale?" a stupid question when there are signs everywhere saying 'everything is on sale'.

Also I happen to think it's rude to expect me to tell you what I will be doing when the store closes, especially when I've never seen you before. I have little patience for small talk with strangers at the best of times. I wonder how it became polite to ask complete strangers 'How are you doing today?' when you really couldn't give a toss. All you really want is to hear the words 'good and you?'. Then they get annoyed when I don't answer them.

Just when I think I may be doing better with my patience issues, something like this comes along and reminds me that I really can be a very prickly, short tempered person. Oh well I suppose it is always good to remind ourselves that we aren't perfect. Bring on working at an actual bookstore.