An Ecclesiastes Week

Just got in from chasing down some residents who were still socializing in the hallway after curfew. It's a bit of a confusing role to be a girl in my twenties telling 30- and 40-year olds to "straighten up." It's certainly not my favorite thing about the job. But I have surprised myself. I have the capacity to do a lot of things I'm not initially comfortable with. Along the same line of thought, I was super proud of myself today when I checked a resident's gas heater that she couldn't get to work and figured out how to get the pilot light lit again. I did NOT want to have to call the gas company if it was something I could fix myself. So I read and re-read the instructions, praying I wouldn't blow up the apartment. It worked!

I got my own toolbox for Christmas, too. I'm becoming my own handyman. 

It's been a bit difficult the last two weeks, going home for Christmas and then returning to a busy workplace, all while reflecting on the multitude of changes that happened in the past year. I graduated from college, spent two months in a European squatter settlement, then moved across the country to start a new chapter of my life, with a new job, new people, new pace of life, new friends, new climate, new responsibilities. My family is also entering a new season. All these changes continue into 2012, so I enter into another year of great change. 

It's incredibly healing to take a moment to reflect on all that has happened in a year's time. And even when it was a challenging year, it's encouraging to simply recognize that you made it through. For several people close to my family, 2011 was a very difficult year. For many, those difficulties continue into 2012. I wish I had some words of comfort, but so often silence is the best response because it allows you time to live through the difficulty and time to heal. Timing is everything, someone recently told me. As Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for every activity under heaven. Though the times of crying, pain, uprooting, or death are not enjoyable, they are a part of life, and every human being who is given a chance to live will experience all of them at some point. I'm learning to be silent for those who are in the middle of these. And in my own uncomfortable seasons, I'm trying to learn how to be silent myself. I am terrible for analyzing everything and trying to solve my situation, but it usually only gets me anxious and mentally exhausted.

I couldn't help but glance through Ecclesiastes just now. It seems like Solomon was an analyzer, too, because his entire life was spent trying to answer the great questions in life, like What is my purpose? and Why do bad things happen? I'm getting a little tired to figure out how to end this thought nicely, but 3:14 seems to have a good piece of meat in it: revere God. I need to let that simmer for a while.

On a different note, I returned from temperatures in the mid-30s in Baltimore last weekend to temps in the 70s here in So Cal. I was a little bitter at first that all the sweaters I brought back with me are useless, but I'm told that they will still come in handy in February and March. The weather was so pleasant this week (82 degrees on Wednesday!) that the kids program staff decided to take some of our teenagers on a hiking trip. It was a blast, and we got to bond more with our teens. The after school program is mostly elementary aged children, and since the majority of our teens moved in after October we don't really have much programming specifically for them. I can't post photos of any of our residents for security purposes, but I can show you our wonderfully talented kids program staff!

My new favorite hobby - hiking - with some of my favorite people from work

Now on this side of the holidays, the moms' spirits are up a bit more. I learned today that one of our young moms has been going to church with another one, which was very encouraging to hear! They told us about the service this morning and how much they love their church. Then they told us their experience with answered prayer that morning... between the two of them there are five children, so all seven people were in the car. Just as they were pulling away to head to church, they saw a police car turn around and head toward them. They knew he could pull them over for having too many people in the car, but they really wanted to go to church and prayed that he wouldn't stop them. He kept following and they kept praying, and then he passed them by. As great as the story was, I was most encouraged to see how excited they were about God acting on their behalf in a very practical way. Both of these moms are very new believers, but I was incredibly encouraged to hear them demonstrate their faith in God in such a simple way. The younger mom is struggling with Door of Hope's program, but it's awesome to remember that God is still very much at work in her life.