Andy, my godsend

Today I was having a horrible day. First I woke up and was agitated right off the bat by one of my friends who was slurping away at her breakfast. Just sip like a lady! Then, I went to my first class where I sit next to another one of my friends, who is one of the smartest women I know, but she mumbles all the time and has almost zero sense of humor. Talking to her is unbelievably frustrating. And all of this happened in the first few hours of my morning, which sets the tone for the rest of your day. It's kind of like when you wake up and it's cloudy and gray outside, and no matter how sunny or beautiful the rest of the day becomes, to you, it's been gloomy all day long.

I came back to my house, where I opened an email to discover that after finally being appointed to a leadership position on campus, after trying and trying and trying and failing and failing and failing, one of the biggest douchebags (sorry for my language) I have ever known was also given a spot on the same team. He lives to be the center of attention, mercilessly flirt with every girl in the room, and even though technically every single one of us is another one of God's greatest gifts, he makes it a point to make sure no one forgets he is one of God's G R E A T E S T gifts -- with his pompous, self-serving, narcissistic, and vainglorious lifestyle. And that really sent me into a tailspin.

The morning kept getting worse and worse, so I decided I needed to get out on the town. I hit my G6 and went errand-running all over Lawrence. I went to Target and the post office and finally decided to get a little Vitamin D and hit up the tanning bed. As I pulled in, I was looking to pay, get in a bed, lock the door, put on my goggles, lay in the heat, listen to the Top 40 radio, and walk out the door. But, glory to God, that's not what happened.

The young lady at the open cash register was named Andy, and it was her first day working at this particular tannery. She was so cute and talkative and chatty -- she was exactly the type of person I needed at that particular moment. After a while, I discovered that it was her first day on the job -- which ended up being a hilarious experience. I gave her my credit card and she didn't know how to swipe it. I told her I had never been to that tanning salon before, and she said, "Aw shucks!! I'm going to have to give you a salon tour and I've never given a salon tour before! Let me print out a script really quick, or believe me, I will forget everything." I handed her my driver's license, which she needed a copy of, and she said to me, "You've just witnessed me make my first copy here!"

She was God revealing himself to me through her. I had gone this entire morning feeling lost and lonely, and then I walked into a tanning salon, of all places, and had the most amusing exchange with a total stranger, that completely turned my day around. We need to look for God in new places. We need to know how strongly he wants to reach out to us, he desperately seeks to be in a relationship with each and every one of his people.

I do not want to sound like an ingrate, or someone who is complaining about things that are vain or petty, because I know how lucky I am. I can recognize that as discontented and miserable as I was this morning is not anywhere near how discontented and miserable some people are in other parts of the world, but I also know that no matter where we are -- physically, mentally, or spiritually -- God will find us.

Thankyou, Andy, for teaching me a valuable lesson. God reveals himself in others. Especially when you're feeling down and out -- he will always come around. With him there is sunshine even in the most dank of caverns.

Number One!

This is my first post! Pledge/Daughter is supposed to be a play-on-words for the angle of this blog. What I want to convey are all the wonderful struggles and celebrations of, as some of my friends say so eloquently, "living Greek in a Roman world." I was, and am no longer, a pledge in a sorority, and I am forever a daughter of God -- learning, living, and loving just as he sent his son to do.

Today's tribulation had some mild offiliaton with my sorority, but what I most want to share is how little, tiny events can sometimes be the things for which we need to give the most thanks.

It's Holy Week. I go to school out of state, so naturally, I was hoping to fly home this weekend to celebrate Easter with my family. I am also an engineering major, which translates to me never having a week that goes by that I do not have at least two tests or quizzes. Lucky me, I had a Physics midterm today at 3pm an hour long drive to the airport, and a boarding pass for a flight that leaving at 5:30 -- smells like trouble.

My sorority sisters offered to drive me to the airport (thank you, gems!), so I ran back from my exam and sped off for the airport at a little after 4. As the clock turned to 5pm on my cellphone I thought to myself, "I am surely not making it to the airport. My parents are going to be so disapointed, and I will have completely ruined Easter." But then I remembered -- He is always with me, and I threw up a prayer.

I prayed, "Dear Lord, please, I never see my family. I need to be on this flight as soon as possible. Do not let it leave without me. So many people will be hurt if I don't arrive -- actually, strike that -- I feel like so many people will be hurt, but it's actually the opposite. Only a few people will be hurt, but they will be so hurt I will feel like the world is hurting. Let me go to my family."

At 5:10 I rushed through the sliding glass doors of the airport to a display monitor. My eyes searched the monitor up and down for my flight, within seconds I found it, and it just so happened the secruity checkpoint to my gate was wide open. I hustled through secruity and arrived at the gate just as the flight attendent was saying, "last call for passengers!"

As I exhaled a breath of exhaustion I thought to myself, "how lucky could I get?! I probably should have missed this plane!" But then, quickly, I realized, God's Grace had intervined and He was sending me home for Easter.