A good day!

Today was a good day. One thing I’m learning (among the millions of things) is to have a different standard for how good a day is. In my life these days, no day will be perfect. In fact, I expect something difficult will happen and I expect to have momentary stress or miscommunication nearly every day. So, how do I evaluate whether a day is good or bad? Let me tell you about today: Dace rode with me to work and we had a nice talk (OK I talked on and on mostly!) and then I went into prayers. Velta was leading and I actually seemed able to understand a good amount of it. We sang, which is always an adventure, and today I got the giggles and couldn’t control it but no one seemed upset. Velta is usually sensitive to what we need and today she was right on. I didn’t sleep last night so I was a bit restless and unsettled when I got to work. She gave us about 5-6 minutes of silence which is just what I needed to get ready for the day. I had a different plan for Salvation Army Principles class today – mostly discussion and very little teaching. I wanted to observe the thinking processes of the cadets and as today the theme was the Mission of The Salvation Army, I thought it would be a good opportunity. But, I wasn’t sure, because if the questions didn’t make sense then I would just be stared at! The class was brilliant! They were creative and challenging and forward thinking. One of the inspiring moments was when I was trying to explain this quote from the International Spiritual Life Commission Report.
Our mission is God’s mission. God in love reaches out through his people to a suffering and needy world, a world that he loves…Our identification with God in this outward movement of love for the world requires a corresponding inward movement from ourselves towards God. Christ says’ come to me’ before he says ‘go into the world’. These two movements are in relation to each other like breathing in and breathing out.
This clicked with all of us. I was drawing a picture of this in and out process and it seemed to be just what we all could agree on. The cycle of relationship with God which leads to relationship with the needy world. This idea carried through in all of the following discussions. It was so fun! I think I had a permanent grin on my face because I was so pleased with what was happening. I hope they didn’t think I was laughing at them. Actually, I was feeling very hopeful about the future of our mission in Latvia. They are the future and they get it! And they know how to think!
At lunch we said goodbye to our cook. It was a nice moment – chocolates and prayer – and she fixed very nice apple dessert (at my request.) From the minute lunch ended and for the next 2 hours it seemed that everything went wrong. I’m trying to sort out a new plan for cooking lunch, meeting with cadets about assignments, problems with computers/printers/networks, etc….I was getting very short tempered and trying to get out of the office so I could study for Doctrine class tomorrow. Finally, I told Solveiga I was leaving before I blew up at whoever walked in next (or her). That could have turned this day from a great one into a disaster. But, God is so faithful and on the way home I could feel the tension leaving and my joy returning. I decided this was a moment to practice ‘infinite joy!’ I did pop into Zoe’s office to unload, but it was just because I have to get this stuff out – poor Zoe! And dear friend, Zoe! When I got home I had a nice talk with Lisbeth and then went for a walk to the post office. The day was turning around. Tonight I’ve been studying for class tomorrow which is also so much fun! We’re going to talk about the existence of God and apologetics. That should be interesting to translate!