The Power of Forgiveness

Wow, my blog titles have really turned serious. Today, however, merits a serious title.

The day itself went rather well. Because I was up so late last night I decided to take my time getting to work and didn't get there till 9:30. That was a bit later than I wanted (thank you late bus) but I still got everything done. I have a rough draft of the paper written. Lots of work still to do, though. I had lunch with Mai-Britt and Bodil again but sat next to Brandon so we chatted until he left. Bodil gave me great encouragement today. She was telling me about the jobs she's held at Topsoe and I asked if Topsoe ever hires just Bachelors and, for the first time, I heard yes. The Engineering division does and I think that is the type of work I would like to do. I thanked her and told her that she'd just encouraged me and we talked for a bit more before heading back to work.

I spent the afternoon at my computer with a short break to clean and set up a washing experiment. Left at 5:25 and sat with Maria and Arkady on the trains home. Took the bus and arrived home to find Lise cleaning. Lise, if you remember, is my host/landlady and has been on vacation the past month. I hadn't cleaned at all yesterday because I was out late and had hoped she would be back tomorrow and not today. All I feel comfortable saying here is that disappointment, ticked, and pissed are words that lack the strength and connotation to convey how she felt coming back to her house as dirty as it was. If you go to the heart of the whole situation it was based upon miscommunication. Miscommunication rooted in language and culture differences. Yujie and I had talked about cleaning together tonight once we got home but really felt the house wasn't too bad. Our expectations were lower than Lise's. But we were all able to get out how we felt and what our intentions had been and will be able to move forward.

One thing I got out of this (besides that I apparently need to learn how to clean better/more often) was that I had the chance to explain forgiveness to Yujie. No, Lise has not forgiven us and I'm not quite sure she will but forgiveness is what the two of us are longing for. We know we have disappointed, we know we have unintentionally been disrespectful and we would do just about anything to make that right again. My housemates from Madison know that I apologize for everything but I hope they know that I mean it each time I apologize. I had to restate my apology to Lise because "sorry" is such an overused word. But anyway, after talking about forgiveness with Yujie and explaining it I felt I had just explained something very important and something she really needed to hear. God works in so many ways that I have no idea what His purpose of all this is. You can bet I will be more clean outside of my room in the next week, though.

I am now emotionally drained, though. Top that with lack of sleep from last night and you have one tired me. So now it's bed time.

I ask that you pray constantly for Yujie, Lise and myself. Me for the next week, Yujie for the next three and Lise, well, as long as we are here. The atmosphere of the house has changed. We two are no longer as free as we were and must relearn how to live with Lise. We did not get a good start. Pray for patience, understanding, grace, humility and love all around. Ah, my heart still hurts just thinking about this, though we will be putting it behind us and have made steps already tonight showing things can be more normal.

Okay, I have to go sleep now.

Have a good night/day/afternoon,
Bekah