Keeping the faith

I'm still reading the book, but a couple of things over the last few days took me into a few sidetracks.

Coming into work, I usually have the pleasure of taking one train to an interchange, then waiting for the connecting one to my station for my office. That connecting one also goes the way the first one does, but at that time in the morning it's quicker just to get on the first one and wait at the interchange. Sometimes I get the through train, sometimes not, but the station announcer always says to get the first train "and change as necessary."

As I looked out of the window, I noticed people who I KNOW get the second train I get just standing and waiting, and I started to wonder why they did that. Were they so ingrained in their habits that they always did the same thing, even if it took more time?

Then I thought, how true is that of other things in our life? We get into a routine, into a habit, and never break out of it, however much we try.

One of my habits, however, is taking slights personally, and that is doubly true of Doreen. This weekend, she was at a woman's retreat for our church when she was asked "Did you enjoy the Baby Shower last week?"

Our pastor's son and his wife live across the road from us, and it transpired they had had a baby shower for her a week past Saturday, to which the women of the church had been identified.

Everyone except Doreen.

What's worse is this is the second time this has happened this year. In the first case, she wasn't invited but we did hear about it, and she sent a gift. This time we didn't even hear about it - and with all that's happened that hurt. A lot.

It hurt me too - so much that I did something yesterday I haven't done for over twenty years - got up and left a service, because I felt I couldn't worship without getting this off my chest. The pastor, bless him, came out and had a word with me, and was shocked at what had happened, but it still hurts that people can be so casually cruel at times.

The funny thing is, they probably thought someone else had given her an invite, so that nobody did. And if you get that line, join me in screaming in exasperation.