"Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good." Rm 12,21
Can seguranca social (social security) be considered evil? I'm not sure. All I know is that when I saw that Bible verse this morning, all I could think was "I will CONQUER seguranca social today!!!"
I went armed with books, things to do, snacks, determined to not be angry with the long lines and rude customer service. Today I only waited TWO hours (victory?) and the lady that helped me would've taken 1 minute to explain to me I am an idiot and there is nothing she could do for me, except for the fact that I insisted and asked lots of questions, so she took about 5 minutes.
After these five minutes of being talked down to and many disapproving frowns, I gave up and left. I had all these expectations that my situation would be resolved, but I left feeling like I just could never get seguranca social right. And I couldn't help crying. Wimp? Hyper-sensitive? Probably, I know.
As I walked down the street toward the train station, I remembered the Bible verse. No, I was being conquered by evil! And suddenly I noticed the ocean. Way off in the distance, past the ugly buildings covered in graffiti, the sun was shining on God's creation and it looked beautiful.
Can you see it... the ocean?
I wiped away my tears and felt a little better. It's true our world is pretty messed up sometimes, with much worse things than seguranca social (I'm a baby!), but God is still there, conquering evil with good and making things beautiful.
I got home way earlier than expected and had time to wash my third and last load of laundry, hang it out to dry in the SUN (yay, the sun is coming back!), eat yummy homemade pizza, soup, drink green tea, plan my classes and blog.
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| My landlady's beautiful plants leading up to my clothes, drying |
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| Sunny day! :) |
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| Goat cheese and broccoli, great pizza toppings |
Evil has been conquered. At least for today, anyway.
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