Things to be thankful for.

• finding the (apparently only) friendly bus driver in Berlin who stopped in the middle of the road to let me on to save me running
• realising the reason my kids were sniggering at me wasn't because I had food in my teeth of my jumper was on back to front or my German was so bad I swore by a mistake: it was because of the mahoosive ladder in the back of my tights
• starting the search for the elusive U-Bahn wolf (I joke not)
• teaching 3 classes back-to-back for the first time - almost seamlessly blagging knowledge of the credit crunch
• shuffle on my iPod giving me what I wanted to listen to for once
• not crying with disbelief when the lady didn't turn up to give me the keys for my room
• every night sleeping really well
• proper fun and fellowship at Louisa's and managing not to notice eating Elaine's apple crumble as well as my own
• learning from Colossians 2 that in Jesus "all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority" and knowing therefore that there is not only nowhere else we should go, but in fact there is nowhere else we can go. God has given us everything we could possibly ask for and more in Jesus - not only him then but also him now, fullness in him in daily life. Wow!
  

"When I counted up my demons
Saw there was one for every day,
With the good ones on my shoulder
I drove the other ones away.

If you ever feel neglected,
If you think all is lost,
I'll be counting up my demons yeah,
Hoping everything's not lost."

That was just one of the songs (yes, it is Coldplay) that came up on shuffle today: normally blasts from the past like Five try to disturb my aura of calm on the S-Bahn but this time it was a great mix, nicely self-indulgent. It set me up nicely for the low point of the day: when I looked round another guy's room in the same Studentenwohnheim as I am going to be living in. I actually found it pretty gross and so my immediate feeling was of real frustration and disappointment that I will have to put up with living in such conditions etc etc but actually it won't be that bad as he was a messy boy who didn't seem to have cleaned for a long while, and anyway I'm kind of stuck with it really as I've already signed the contract. First and foremost I am there to combat others' loneliness, and this is most definitely not by my friendship alone, but what of God is, I pray, reflected in it. A Studentenwohnheim can be a horrifically impersonal and lonely place because they are all completely self-contained. But my job living there is to bring some sort of community to the place, bringing people together and together looking at who Jesus was and why he came. It is light that overpowers darkness. Once a light is shining, the darkness, try as it might, cannot snuff it out:
[John 1] "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Today I felt for the first time this feeling of 'home' that I cannot really describe, but that I have been missing so much and seeking so earnestly. It was just a fleeting glimpse as I was on the bus coming back from Louisa's and I passed the now familiar train station, building works and corner shop. Not that this place is now anything like 'home' to me, but that somehow the feeling of contentment has been weaving its way into my day-to-day mindset, making me all the more thankful for every moment I am able consciously to enjoy.