When things are broken

It makes me really sad when things get broken or damaged.  Today I dropped my phone on a brick and the edge of the phone got dented.  Now I'm really sad because it's less than perfect.  I know that this is a trivial problem and I could console myself with the fact that at least the screen is still intact and everything is working fine.  But I'm still sad about the damage. 

I've written about this before.  Not in a blogpost, but in an old journal.  In year 12 I accidentally cracked the spine of a new book and was really sad about it.  It was ridiculous to be that sad about a book, and I knew that.  I reflected then about what it says about me that I felt like a book with a cracked spine was now 'ruined'.  The new book was less lovely because of its flaw.  I didn't really come up with an answer back then, I just hoped that I would get over it.  And of course I did get over it. 

So I was thinking today.  Who doesn't get upset when something is broken or damaged?  Of course it depends on the original value of the object, not just monetary value but sentimental, and use value as well.  When things get broken we know this is bad, that something has gone wrong.  We have this innate knowledge that this shouldn't happen.  But it does happen.  We live in a broken world so of course things break and are damaged.   

But I think there is also something wrong with the fact that I love something like my phone so much.  I'm not always aware of how much I love things until they are damaged or destroyed.  There is idolatry in my heart, which too easily loves created things rather than the creator of all things.  

So I'm looking forward to a time when things won't get broken.  When I won't love things as much as I do because they won't come near to comparing to the joy I have in God and the wonder of worshiping him forever.

Thankful Thursday

This week has felt like a pretty regular week.  At least, I’m struggling to come up with anything interesting to write about for today’s Thankful Thursday post.  But that’s kind of the point of this series.  It was to help me to find things in my life to be thankful to God for, perhaps especially when life feels pretty normal.  Here are some of the things I’m thankful for this week:

Internet
We recently had new hardware installed in our house that has made internet access much easier at home.  I know that we are incredibly blessed that college provides us with internet at no extra cost.  I am now even more thankful that it is working at home again and not just in our studies in the unit block next to ours.  When we moved here to study at college we never expected to be provided with internet so this is something we are constantly thankful for (even though we sometimes grizzle when it is slow or not working).

Progress with my knitting
I learnt to knit last year (or relearned if you count the one square that I never finished when I was a kid).  I knitted one scarf and then promptly stopped again.  By the time I had finished it the weather had changed out of scarf-temperature.  But I have been re-inspired lately and had a lot of time on Saturday to knit, for which I am thankful.  I’ve been following a pattern sort-of.  Well, it’s really following a certain stitch or texture and I’m making up how wide and long I want the scarf to be. 

  
Dinner with friends
This week we’ll have gone out to dinner at friends’ houses twice (Tuesday night and tonight).  I really enjoy the opportunity that having dinner together gives for getting to know each other better.  We’ve really enjoyed winter dinners in our community where we have dinner with a different family each week.  Tonight’s invitation came from some fellow students in our year at college and I’m thankful for their hospitality in inviting us and the chance to spend some time with them outside of college.

What are you thankful for this week?

Friendship when you’re far away

A couple of weeks ago in an Ethics lecture we talked about friendship.  What friendship is, why it’s important.  Our lecturer told us that friendship is usually characterised by three things: attraction, reciprocity, and proximity. 

As we talked about what friendship is I thought about my friends, old and new, and I was so thankful.  I remember when we moved interstate for college I was afraid that I would find it really hard to make new friends and be away from old ones.  But somehow I did make new friends and have kept in touch with some old ones. 

But I’ve really felt the impact that proximity has on friendships.  I’m sure we’ve all experienced it in some way.  We’re no longer friends with all our friends from high school.  And a big reason for this is proximity.  We no longer see each other five days a week.  In many ways this is okay.  Friendships do end, that’s natural.

But I rebelled against the proximity factor as well.  I don’t want my friendships with some people to end.  Whether it be new friends that I’ve made here or old friends back home.  Lack of proximity will become a factor again, as it already is now.  

When you’re living far away from your friends, and you don’t see them regularly you have to put in more effort.  And I’ve often found that since I’m the one who has moved away then I am often the one who has to put in the effort of maintaining contact, or at the least organising to catch up when I’m back home.  Things got better once I realised this!  I think it will be different again when college finishes because everyone is moving away from college and the responsibility of making contact is more equally shared. 

The reciprocity part of friendship also poked at me.  I’ve seen how loving and generous people at college are.  And sometimes I wonder if I’m being like that.  Nobody wants to be a bad friend, me included.  So I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a friend and how I can be better. 

So I have a question and you can comment in the box below (hint: if you don’t have a Google/Wordpress/etc. profile then you can choose the “Name/URL” option next to “Comment as:” and just type your name there and leave URL blank). 
What do you think makes someone a good friend?

Thankful Thursday

Friends, I’m sorry that it’s been a while since I’ve written.  There isn’t really an excuse.  But here I am again, perhaps procrastinating a little from my research week assignment, but I really did want to get a post out today since I haven’t posted in a while.  So here are some of the things I’m thankful for in the midst of this mad assignment–writing week:

A package in the mail
This wasn’t a surprise because I ordered it myself, but I was surprised with how quickly it arrived.  On Tuesday I got my gumboots! 
I have complained twice on Facebook (and more times out loud) that I didn’t own a pair of gumboots.  The first time was when I went to the show (you can read about it here) and it rained for half the day.  I walked around with wet–sneaker feet all day. 
I haven’t had a chance to wear these gumboots yet because it has been sunny all week (I’m not complaining about that) but when I do I’ll try to remember to take a picture to share with you.

 Concentration
There has been a sad pattern to my research week experiences.  I’m not very good at staying on track (this may be partly my personality but I might talk about that in a different post).  The assignment is so big it overwhelms me and I often wonder what I’m even doing at college at all.  I’m not smart enough for this!  So I get distracted and waste time on other things because I can’t face the fear of not being able to get my head around the assignment.  But it’s a vicious cycle.  The assignment looks bigger as the time left to do it gets smaller.  But I am thankful to say that this week I have been pretty focused (aside from this small break, shh!).  I prayed at the beginning of the week that God would help me to concentrate and to understand what I read, and while I’m not sure about the second part, I really do think that God has helped me this week.  So this thanks goes to God. 

I think I’ll stop there and get back to my essay.  Thanks for the break!

What are you thankful for this week?