Four ways.

{edited to add: if you think this title is ridiculous(ly awesome) we would probably be friends in real life if we aren't already. thanks for letting me be immature ummmkay}

Three minutes before my second class of the day ended my roommate LG called me. Of course, class was still going on, so I didn't answer. She then texted me (which I do read in class- bad student but not really) and asked if I'd like a coffee since she was going by the Coffee House before our next class. So she brought me a delicious mocha, still piping hot, and I loved it.

Later my roommate, The Demanda, made me a hamburger today at lunch. It was delicious. It broke apart while she was cooking it and she sat it on a pink plate. I almost took a picture of it for "things shaped like hearts," but I figured no one but me would really appreciate it.

I just wanted to tell this to everyone because no one in particular would care :) OH and the hamburger was so good. I love me some red meat.

Then I got home from work and my wonderful roomate T. left me a gift card for a massage (because she knows when I am stressed out about things and loves me) on my laptop.

And my wonderful boyfriance wrote me a wonderful letter on lined notebook paper inside the most adorable envelope I've ever seen. He stole the envelope(?)(.) And the same nice roommate who got me the massage picked up this letter, too, and put it beside the one she gave me on my desk.

And you know what? All of these things I would have simply left unrecognized if I wans't writing right now. These four people (but probably not only these four people) gave of themselves today and really showed me love. And that love comes from one place.

At a time in my life when I doubt so much the character of the church institution, who we are really called to be was shown to me in at least four different ways: a coffee, a hamburger, a piece of plastic and a letter/envelope combination.

And the fifth person, who recieved it all but didn't stop to look at it until she really STOPPED and LOOKED at it, just as much of the institutional problem as the problem itself. Because in the midst of these wonderful Christ-bearing witnesses, she (I) hardly took the time to give thanks. So as much as I dislike some things, I dislike myself more when I see examples of love and dismiss them and become a spoke in the wheel of what I dislike.

I won't continue to deluge you with half-baked theological interpretation; it will be disappointing for both of us.

I hope maybe I can show you back in at least four ways the love I was shown today.