A Frustrated Thank You

 When I got home from work on Tuesday afternoon, my garage door wouldn’t work. Even with manual release, the door wouldn’t go up. My dad and I fiddled with it for awhile but couldn’t get it lifted, but later that night the door opened right up. Since it was so cold, my dad strongly suggested that I put the car in the garage. I was concerned that doing so would result in my car being stuck on Wednesday morning. I wasn’t convinced that the door had magically fixed itself.

 

I was right. My car got stuck in the garage yesterday morning. Thankfully, my dad let me drive his car.

 

When I got to school, the internet wasn’t working correctly in my building. I didn’t realize this fact until I was trying to teach a class of squirrely Kindergarteners. With the internet going in and out, I precariously made my way through my first two classes until the internet finally started working properly for my third. Thankfully, our IT guy was on campus and able to reset the router.

 

Meanwhile, my personal computer downloaded an update that basically crashed the computer.  I couldn’t open my lesson plans or class roll sheet for third period. Thankfully, Microsoft Office straightened up and I was able to open documents for the rest of the day, but I wasn’t able to do anything online because my web browser never recovered from the update. It is still running dreadfully slow. Thankfully, I have ordered a new computer and I am praying that the new computer will treat me better than the one I currently have.

 

Strangely enough, 4^th and 5^th periods went off without a hitch. But during last period, toward the end of class, my nose started bleeding. Thankfully, I was having my students dance so most of them didn’t notice that I was standing there with tissues pressed against my face. The nosebleed lasted for a solid five minutes. I was glad when class was over.

 

After school ended, I received a phone call from a disgruntled parent. She was upset that her daughter lost a fidget in my classroom. I didn’t see the fidget. I didn’t know that the fidget was missing until the end of class when said nosebleed was occurring. The mom wanted to know if I did a search of the students in the class. I did not. Thankfully, our receptionist fielded that call.

 

To say that yesterday was a frustrating day is accurate. And yet, through it all, by grace much bigger than myself, I was able to remain calm and not fly into a tantrum. Maybe that grace was being weary and not having the energy to fly into a tantrum. Or maybe that grace came through being thankful every time something went right.

 

There is so much hurt in the world right now. So much grief. So much loss. So much pain. I want to fix it. But I don’t know how to fix it. I can’t fix it. I couldn’t fix everything that went wrong yesterday. But I could drudge through it, trying to keep the best attitude possible, trying to find the good, and trying to be honest when people asked how I was doing. “Frustrated,” I would say. And somehow, that truth lightened the load just a bit.

 

Oh God, on good days and bad, You Are, so help us to find grace in all the ways it manifests itself. We are a weary people. A tired people. A frustrated people. And yet goodness abounds. Help us to find that goodness and to let its truth be our reality. Somehow. Through grace. Amen.