enlarge my heart

semi-candid freebie shot from our photoshoot day

Today after class I had planned to get my lesson plans done, head home, work out, and go to dinner in the city with a friend. Things changed when the middle schoolers tumbled into my room (the biggest and most versatile room in the school) for their weekly chapel meeting and the chapel leader mentioned something about the planned video they were showing and it caught my attention. I was curious. So I stayed to listen.

The true story was told about the relationship of two roommates. One was a shy, quiet Christian girl, sure of her own convictions, and the other, a typical college party girl. By the end of the story my heart burned within me. Only 14 days in the midst of personal crisis for that latter girl, and the soft, un-judging heart of the former girl was a gateway to the grace of God poured out. Grace. Is this something that I live by? Do I know it? KNOW know it? Does it catch me in its uttermost throes, rob me of my breath, and thrill me to the core of my being? Does it make me weep, or make me want to shout aloud for joy? I drove home mulling something over in my head. Something I am not sure how to pinpoint.

I want more.

More of Grace.

More Love.

More Life.

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I am learning to appreciate people more. (Maybe in that same vein, I am also learning how much I did not appreciate them before.) There is just something about being thrown into a foreign environment that makes one reach out to any simple form of friendship. And camaraderie. This week just wrapped up #3 of working out with my new "exercise group" and I've come to appreciate the motivation that comes from sweating it out together with comrades. Encouraging words in fellowship are powerful. And we hold that kind of power in ourselves.

God has been planning divine appointments of His own for me. This evening on my way to dinner in the city I ran into one of my former students from the university on the MRT. I went over and sat next to her and we made light conversation. She mentioned something had happened in her family (in the expected roundabout way of the culture), and I asked if everything was all right. She said she supposed so but it didn't sound very convincing. But something from that girl mentioned in the video this afternoon made me remember that even though we don't always know what to do or say, the love in our hearts will always shine through. So I smiled at her to let her know to let her know that here was a friend.

A girl came to church last Sunday just returned from work holiday in Australia. She asked me about our Sunday school and learning more about Christianity, so I asked her if she had any questions. "I just don't really understand what it's all about," was her reply. She was so willing and ready to hear the Gospel, and I gladly told it--haltingly and interspersing two languages, but she nodded and thanked me in the end. God is definitely doing a work there in that heart.

Tonight I had dinner with a new friend who is back home from the States because of health issues. We shared our stories and I was again amazed at how God moves differently in different lives. I am encouraged that we "found" each other at this time -- although we do not fully know it yet, I have a feeling that the encouragement we can give to each other will be mutually needed and appreciated.

And lastly, something about grace. This week I prayed specifically for healing in a certain area of my life, and God was so gracious to grant it within a couple days. He is moving, and His movements graceful; deeply wrapped in the beauty and truth of His essence. Indeed, He is Love. And He is Life.

I will run in the way of Your commandments
    when You enlarge my heart!

Ps 119:32