Todays plan was supposed to be a nice little trip up to Frankfurt to celebrate Oktoberfest. Due to some high shoes, a long dress, and turkish circle dance, one of my dear friends ended up spraining her ankle last night. This meant that our plans could not be fulfilled and I did not have any friends to go with. Alright, that sucks...
....but I was happy because I was going to be able to go to church. I think after going three weeks in a row in summer I was "churched out". Even during the week I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to go this week or next week. Well as luck turned out, God wanted me to go to church this week.
I was also happy that I was able to go. I got into another little tiff with my roommate last night, because I asked him to wipe up after he spills his coffee. (Side note: if changing the colour of countertops was an art form, my roommate would be in the Louvre) I also had sent a group text earlier to him and my other roommate earlier saying (translated) "The front door was left open twice today. Please pay attention". He takes everything I say as a deep dark criticism. I also look stupid because last week I looked in the bathtub and saw hair and said - hey can you please clean that out - and he found my hair within the mix....a bit of egg on my face. So he said that he can't ever believe me now because I criticize, but then do the same thing. Sir, I do not pour coffee on the counter and not wash up. For him it is simply too difficult to admit that he perhaps erred. It is impossible to have an form of discussion because he turns immediately defensive or tries to shift the blame.
I wanted to go to church today, especially because I had a difficult time sleeping last night because I was a little distraught over what had happened. I also wanted to take the time and try and learn something and how God can help me handle the situation with more grace.
Grace is at the moment a huge theme for me, and I think for my dear father as well. It is easier to act with pettiness and sarcasm, but grace is something God has shown us, and how we should choose to interact with the people around us.
Anyways - I am very happy to go to church. I think it may have been the first time that I ever paid attention to the whole sermon. He was talking about how there are rules for living in a community, which then led to the ten commandments. The speaker then made a comparison to the fact that in Germany there are over 67,000 individual rules in the German Law Books...
Each law is based on some sort of situation. There would be no need for the law, unless there was some sort of precedent set. That is sad. Even if you are not a christian this is sad. Why do people try to do bad things to hurt other people? Why do people think that it is more important to think of the self? And Germany is much more community minded than North America.
I think people need to act with more grace towards each other. By treating each other poorly we simply encourage retaliation and acting rash does not make the situation better.
