Not the day I expected

today i was supposed to finish up my overdue paper on Isaiah 54. it's almost done. but it was almost done yesterday, too.

my errands this morning became conversations. delightful ones. but not so good for getting the homework done.

i went to the library to find the hebrew of Isaiah 54:9,14 in the Qumran scrolls. It seems like a specific enough request - and easy to do (after all, it had been when I had search for Psalm 137 in the Qumran). Not today. After half an hour of going through every book in the section, I gave up. Already annoyed i went to seek the help of a librarian (my first time), who was busy helping somebody do research. ten minutes later, without any acknowledgment from the librarian, i left to appease my annoyment by finding a movie or two to watch this weekend.
and bumped into a student (one of the favourites teachers aren't supposed to have) that i hadn't seen for a year. and caught up. and then bumped into my old roommate. and caught up. the librarian was busy again. the theological librarian was lost. and i attempted a five minute last ditch effort to find the elusive text. and then i left. feeling dreadfully unproductive. and then bumped into my old mentor. caught up. (and did i mention that on the way to the librarian the first time, i'd bumped into the current leader of InterVarsity at Calvin. and caught up.)

then i thought i'd at least get some work done in the computer lab. i got some done. but mostly i talked. about my visits to a monastery (and how normal the monks are - and hopefully conveyed the joy and peace i receive from going there - what else would one expect after going to a place where people have prayed for years?). about devotions, which is one of those conversations we at Seminary don't usually talk about. we can discuss what a text means and even how to preach it without any problems. but when it comes to how our lives are being shaped by it and how we try to make the Word of God a regular part of our lives, we're quiet and unsure. and wishing that were not so, i was suprised and delighted by the conversation.

and by that time, i had since figured out that my unproductive work day had been a day of growing in other ways. and of learning things and seeing God in unexpected places.
- like the phone call from a good friend in the midst of writing this. she encouraged me with my search for a place to live next year. and i got to encourage her. and pray together on the phone.
- and i saw God in the conversations at lunch.
= in wishing that students were invited to participate more in the structural side of things at Seminary.
= and wondering together with friends about the women in office and how to be hospitable to people who disagree with our perspective. and how the Seminary, whose administration was for women in office, long before the denomination was okay with that, could be hospitable to those who are not while still remaining very diligently hospitable to the women studying for ministry.
= and having just this morning seen how someone had graciously, and even more did so with the sense that this was the only loving thing to do, embraced and encouraged someone who held strongly to a very different theological position on something that overlapped into her life.

all in all, it was a much better day than the one i expected when i got out of bed. i pray that i might remember that. and expect more.