Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!

Time moves differently here. Or maybe it's just me. Some weeks whiz by and I wonder what happened. Other weeks are just as full, but somehow last forever. This was a forever week.

I think it culminated this morning with me in the church nursery, holding a crying toddler and trying to explain in my broken Albanian that he's not my kid but it's ok that I have him in the nursery, while getting stares and advice from enough people to make me think that he's disturbing the entire church service. (His parents are from the village and we wanted them to have a chance to hear the sermon without having to keep a toddler happy.)

It's been a week of feeling, alternately, like I did in the nursery and like little Seldi did. What do I do to make this crying baby happy? and Agh!!!! *tears*

Interpersonal dynamics are difficult. Cross-cultural work is challenging.

I knew those things before coming here. I just don't think I realized what understatements those are.

It was a week of realizing just how much this either had better be God's work or it's worthless. It was a week where the best of plans don't always pan out. (Seldi and I only made it through half the sermon.)

But at the end of it, it was a week where God was the one working, and I was reminded of that.

Psalm 107 was a great comfort to me this week, especially in this one statement: Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Why? For the benefit of others. For the reminder to themselves. Because we ought to boast in what God did. Because it really is His work. We can't save anybody, including ourselves. It's God who does that.

Oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
For He satisfies the longing soul,
And fills the hungry soul with goodness.
Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Bound in affliction and irons -- 
Because they rebelled against the words of God,
And despised the counsel of the Most High,
Therefore He brought down their heart with labor;
They fell down and there was none to help.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
And broke their chains in pieces.
Oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men! 
For He has broken the gates of bronze,
And cut the bars of iron in two.

I'm thankful that God provides what we need -- grace. For a restored relationship with Him. For the strength to make it through a week full of personal and interpersonal stress. There were moments this week when it didn't feel like there was enough grace to cover it all. But I think sometimes God allows us to feel our need for Him, to be reminded that we are not enough. Because we're not.  

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!

-Lydia