God is いいね...(good)

Yesterday (Saturday) was a rough day...but today has been great!

...my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, "My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD." Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust-- there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men
(Lamentations 3:17-33 ESV)

Yesterday, I was suffering, and I felt that I was under God's wrath and separated from His love (clearly a lie)...I know I am no longer an object of God's wrath by the blood of Christ who became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God...no, what's worse is that as his adopted son, I can now become an object of my Father's grief. I grieve the Father with my lack of faith and sin.
These verses have been an encouragement to me. I have found that my passion and zeal for the God has diminished since the spring, and I know that God wants to build and refine me. This may be my time to wait on him...

Oh, today was great because I went to my first Japanese Church! It's only about 7 min away by bike, and the people there are were great! I couldn't understand a thing...but we sang 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow' in Japanese!