hello

i had an interesting encounter with someone the other day. i was walking towards the bike rack getting ready to go home when a girl walked up to me. she had short blonde hair and was wrapped up in a long scarf and had a huge sparkly pin of a reindeer on her sweater. she said, "excuse me, do you want to join my bible study?" i said, "sure, when is it?" she paused for a long time then started giggling. i asked her what was wrong. she told me she wasn’t used to people saying yes so she was surprised. she had an accent, sounded russian. she seemed like a sweet person. i asked her where she was from, she said eastern europe and that she was presbyterian. why was she doing this? she said, "the people here are troubled." i agreed just as two homeless men walked by across the street. she struggled a bit finding the right words but i knew what she was trying to say. she told me, "i am reading romans now. i am having trouble accepting that i am saved. i feel half saved, like there is something left for me to do." i knew how she felt. i told her the biggest struggle is realizing how broken we are and how we have to trust that jesus will fix us. i told her that sometimes i wish bad things would happen to me so that i can be punished for any bad things i have done. she giggled and agreed with me that it is wrong to feel that way. we talked about the importance of our good works and how if we believe that christ redeemed us then we also have to live according to his word. it was a long conversation. she told me she was nervous about walking up to strangers and debated whether to start with small talk first, then jump into jesus. she said that's what jesus did with the samaritan woman at the well, asking her for water was just a lead-in, in a sense. we giggled and laughed and on my way home i felt like there just may be good still left in this world.