mehr als genug

Today I went on an adventure.

I got into my car, drove to the next town, and walked into a German church where I didn't know a single soul.

Except, of course, Sefora. During my sophomore year of college I took voice lessons with Sefora as part of her vocal pedagogy class. The catch to the free lessons was that I had to "perform" in front of the entire vocal ped class at the end of the semester - basically, we had a typical lesson in front of an audience. I remember being terrified to sing in front of an entire class of voice majors, many of whom were my friends! But somehow I made it through unscathed, though she was the one being graded, not me!

After I moved to Germany, we reconnected on Facebook and I saw that she was touring in Germany. Last year I tried to make it to one of her concerts but it didn't work out, so when I saw a few weeks ago that she was coming to Lörrach I knew I had to make it work.

So I got into my car, drove to the next town, and walked into a German church where I didn' t know a single soul except Sefora, who was doing a mini-concert during the morning service. Except for the German being spoken, it looked a lot like any other church - coffee bar, PowerPoint song lyrics, chairs in rows, casually-clad congregation gripping Bibles and to-go mugs, and LOTS of children running around. So I found myself a seat towards the back and tried to look as normal as possible. As long as I didn't have to speak, no one would have to know that I didn't speak German.

I took my cues from the people around me - when to stand, when to sit, when to laugh, when to bow my head for prayer (thankfully "Amen" sounds pretty much the same in German!). And I lucked out with the PowerPoint song lyrics because I could attempt to sing along during the worship time. The exciting part was recognizing familiar words amidts all the umlauts, and when they sang Chris Tomlin's "Our God is Greater" in German, I actually understood the whole song (and learned a few new words!). Small victories. The sermon was the hardest part, because my German listening skills STINK. From the reaction of the congregation, the pastor gave a very engaging, funny, and moving message but sadly I didn't follow any of it. I did hear him repeat the phrase "I am a child of God" many times, though!

So on my way home I was listening to Sefora's new CD, and I heard this beautiful song. Here's the chorus:

Deine Gnade is mehr als genug
Deine Gnade is mehr, als ich brauch
Deine Gnade is mehr als genug
jeden Morgen neu

Your grace is more than enough
Your grace is more than I need
Your grace is more than enough
Every new day

I need this reminder on a daily basis. God's grace is more than enough for me, and his mercies are new every morning. If He can have this everlasting and unconditional patience with me and all my screwups, then certainly the least I can do is extend the same to my students. It's easy for me to start Mondays with a fresh slate, but as the week progresses it becomes too easy to start a "tab" of all their wrongdoings. Pray that this week (and every week!) I would remember that God's grace is more than enough for me - that He would heap so much grace on me that I can't help but pass it on to my students, too.

PS, you can hear Sefora's music here. It's so lovely.