In the Workplace

I only have four shifts left at work: This weds. and thurs. and next weds. and thurs. I am so excited to be done with work, and begin focusing ultimately on the baby to come. Work has been an exciting place as well lately, and I have a hard time leaving just as much as I hate staying.

There is a girl at work that I have recently begun forming a close relationship with. I was really surprised, too, because she is a very distant sort of person and lets few people in so I wasn't even trying. Somewhere along the way she must have started trusting me. She's living with her boyfriend of 4 years, and he has a kid with another woman, but they are planning on getting married next year. I actually think that it is great for them to be together, and I hope they do marry because it will be really good for them and the child involved. Anyway, this is how we started getting close. She told me that she was attending a Presbyterian church regularly for the first time, and making her boyfriend go to, and even though they are living together they aren't sleeping together until they get married. My response was good luck, but it's gonna be really hard, and maybe you should consider getting married sooner than in one year!

Then, on Sunday she asked me if she could ask me a personal question. She told me that she had cheated on her boyfriend a year ago, and had told him right away, and that he'd forgiven her. But she can't shake the nagging feeling of guilt now that they are planning to marry. She wanted to know if it was legitimate for her to still feel guilty because some of her friends were telling her she should always feel guilty. I took a deep breath, and did the scary thing when you don't know where someone stands. I said, "There is no need to feel guilty for any of the sins we do anymore once we've confessed them, and you already did that. We've all done wrong, and every sin and mistake is equal in the eyes of God, but Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins so now we never have to feel guilt again." She understood me, but I don't know if it has any real meaning to her yet, but I'm glad that she heard the truth.

It's just funny to me that I've worked there for a year, I'm one of the few people working there that has a firm grip on the implications of the Gospel, but it's not until I'm leaving that God is setting this opportunity to reach out and comfort someone. I wonder why that is.