22-06-13

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Today I need to first acknowledge that my baby sister is no longer a teenager, as today is her 20th birthday, so happy birthday, Tess. Oh, break her heart and I break your face! Seriously, just ask her ex!

Anywho, I have a blog to write. Today my phone was stolen from the Perth Underground train station. I dropped it on the ground, heard it fall, went to pick it up and it was gone. It wasn't too busy, but there was still a fair few people around and I couldn't see clearly who may have picked it up. So, the second half of my afternoon was spent blocking my number, filing police reports, making statements and all that fun stuff that you do when your phone gets stolen. Although, on the positive, I do have insurance and so I will be getting a new phone within a couple of weeks.

This incident today made me think that when issues like this arise that seem to make us go from super happy to wanting to punch people in the face in two seconds flat, as much as we don't want to, we need to forgive and let it go. I let it rob my joy for a few hours until I realized that holding a grudge is like eating a lemon. Seriously, nobody except my niece enjoys eating a lemon. Forgiveness is not about the person that hurts us, but about us. I can say that I'm pretty sure the person who took my phone today hasn't thought about me twice since the incident. I've thought about them a lot. That just proves that I'm the one with the issue, not them. Yes it is an inconvenience not having a mobile phone for about two weeks, but I'm blessed that I have more than one method of communication such as Facebook and e-mail these days. Also, whatever happened to good old snail mail? It's like the only thing that comes through that these days are bills, which makes the mail-receiving thing not so fun. Letters are great and would make the mail getting thing a much more joyful experience for me!

It wasn't all bad today as I went to Little Willy's (my favourite coffee shop) and they asked where I'd been as they said they had missed me. I told them I'd been in hospital for a grand total of 155 days with a potentially life-threatening bone infection. Then, it was decided that today I would be getting my coffee for free because they missed me. Also, I was blown away that they still remembered how I like my coffee, even though I haven't been able to go there since November 2012. Now that is good service and just one reason why I keep going back there!

Well, I guess you can figure out from reading that I was at Perth Underground station that I am home from the hospital. To be fair, I got home Wednesday night but didn't want to make it public information until now. Last night was my first night back at youth and it absolutely blew me away with the amount of love that was in the place! Seriously, so much squealing was happening, but it was all good and there were more hugs than I can remember. I couldn't help but sit there in worship time and just watch with tears streaming down my face, knowing that I don't deserve this and that I'm only back at youth by God's grace. It was also a good reminder that Chris did the right thing last year by convincing me that my time in youth ministry is definitely not done, despite my physical condition in December last year when I called him and told him I was sick and will be stepping down permanently from being a youth leader. I'm absolutely humbled and thankful that I get to be a leader in the most amazing youth ministry ever, Metro Youth. I do not say that lightly either! I am so pumped for next week, but also slightly freaked as next Friday I will be sharing my personal life story. It's crazy because there is so much to tell and so I've got to figure out what the most important details of my life are that need to be shared. I'm so excited to be back and doing what I love by sowing seeds into the youth of today, and I even get to serve at youth with my best friend now because she's now a youth leader too, which made last night even more fun! Oh, she also makes seriously good coffee too! :D