saying good bye to an old friend

Yep, tonight I said good-bye to an old and dear friend.
About a year ago, I struck out on a road trip with a buddy of mine. We were headed to "Rock the Desert." It is a two day, in the heat, hard rockin', head bangin', Christian concert. We were on our way when I realized I had no sunglasses.

I have always owned brown sunglasses. Invisible, blend in with the crowd.... very me. We stopped at a gas station, and I decided to go ahead and grab a new pair while we were there. Nothing invisible and blendy in with the crowdy kind of thing. The best thing I found was this atrocious pair of white sunglasses. With BLING!!!! I don't do BLING!!! Seriously.

I tolerated them all weekend, and even thought I might keep them after I got home. Well, after searching for my brown sunglasses, which never reappeared, I just kept using the white ones. Reluctantly due to the bling. Until they finally grew on me and became a permanent fixture on my head. Recess Duty? White Sunglasses. Driving to my new job in Anna? White Sunglasses. Block parties meeting new friends? White Sunglasses. Community outreach events? White Sunglasses. Roadtrips with friends? White Sunglasses. Mexico mission trips? White Sunglasses. Easter Egg Drop? White Sunglasses.

These glasses that I hated became a signature piece of my wardrobe. I was horrified tonight when I opened my purse and the side had been totally snapped off, broken beyond repair. I briefly considered duct tape. But am pretty sure Shawn is going to veto that one. I guess I am in the market for a new pair of sunglasses. I am just going to miss all the memories of the best year of my life that the white ones triggered every time I put them on.

Monday Morning Update

What a day at The Crossroads! It was 19 degrees when we climbed into the suburban this morning. I was pleasantly surprised by how well we were able to heat the cheer gym. It was cool, but not miserably so except while we had the doors open unloading and loading stuff off the truck.

I was so stoked to have our bass player in town for Christmas break. I miss having a bass, but more than that, I've missed my friend. We felt complete today as a band. The worship set was pretty awesome. No big surprise there....I've come to expect excellence.

Shawn's sermon was incredible. He managed to bring out some new stuff about the Christmas story that I had never seen before. I'm pretty sure he will be posting his sermon on www.blazingthetrail.blogspot.com so you can check it out for yourself. He will get to preach one more time before his enforced silence for three weeks due to the cyst on his vocal chords.

This afternoon we had "White Christmas" at the park in Anna. We brought in 330 bags of "snow" - snow cone ice, really. Each bag weighed 35 pounds. Do the math - we moved over 11,000 pounds of ice! We served hot cocoa and cookies, gave away an mp3 player, and the band played. It was awesome. We had over 80 people show up - in spite of the miserably cold conditions. My fingers hurt so bad trying to play keys in the cold. However, I was wearing gloves that I had cut the fingertips out of. The guitar guys were in serious pain because they couldn't wear gloves and play. But even with bitterly cold conditions.....I can't think of any other way I'd rather spend my day than getting to play music with an awesome band. Love hanging out with them!

After we cleaned up and packed up, we went to IHOP for supper with some of the launch team. As we were leaving Shawn said, "We are so very lucky to have such amazing friends." I just couldn't agree more. Several of my friends from Anna stopped by today to hang out at the Christmas thing, and then all the people from church and from the launch team.....days are just better when you get to share them with friends!

We are excited about going to Mexico next week for a mission trip. Please pray for our safe passage back and forth across the border and that God would begin to prepare hearts to meet Him. How cool - The Crossroads' first mission trip!

Just kidding about being too tired to blog

Tonight we had an awesome night at Bible Study. I was thrilled that the kids' soccer practice was rained out so that I got to attend to whole thing. I love hanging out with my Crossroads friends. I don't know that I've ever been around so many unique, but absolutely awesome people at any other time in my life. I am looking forward to what God has in store for us in the upcoming months. Thanks guys for coming along on the ride.

Missing Shua

Since I'm already down to about 5 hours of sleep tonight if I was asleep right now, this one will be short.

Tonight I said good=bye to a dear friend, a member of my family really. Joshua joined us late last spring on this adventure of church planting. Shawn met him in a coffee shop and the rest is kind of history. He quickly joined our family at our supper table at least once a week and my baby learned to call him "shua". I made some lifelong beautiful memories with my friend. Nothing gets much better than sitting on the porch, writing music, and picking out harmonies together. He even shared my sacred piano bench with me on a couple of songwriting journies and heard some of the stuff that I haven't really even written yet. I have been blessed to get to know him and to see God at work in his life.

In just a few months time, our family has adopted Shua as one of our own. Unfortunately for us, Joshua is leaving late this week to chase God. He is going to Seattle, and then back East. We will desperately miss Joshua and are blessed that God allowed us to share this part of his journey. Love you Shua ----- God watch over you ------ until we meet again! Chase the Lion!

Friends...a God thing

God really knew what he was doing when he made friends. And I am so thankful for all of mine. Thought I'd take a minute just to let you all know. To my friends who held me while I cried today, thanks.....To my friends who made me laugh later, thanks.....To my friends who said get over your negative attitude tonight, thanks.....To my friends who made me feel valuable, thanks....To my friends who are already planning how to help me through the next little bit while I go through some withdrawal, thanks... I love that God puts people together with different abilities, talents, and personalities and teaches us how to love each other so that we become better people in the long run. I am glad that God invented friends...especially on the hard days.....Thanks again for loving the good, the funny, the sweet, the rude, and the wrong stuff about me and thanks for letting me love all of you.

Where'd last night's blog go?

I noticed that my blog from last night did not upload. Not sure why. Maybe for the best. I was just praying really hard for several of my friends with heavy burdens who are in deep crisis. I was even intentionally vague so that identities would remain secret. However, must have been that God wanted those prayers to be just between me and Him. But you might want to know...very cool....one of my friends that I was praying for got a very unexpected and incredible relief from her crisis early this morning. She said today that it was as if a car had been lifted off her chest. Another friend has a pretty clear answer about her future as well. So apparently God answered some of the prayers, even though they didn't make the blog for you to pray along with me.



Spiritual moment: Matthew 20:17-28. Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem when James and John's mom waylaid him. Imagining him to soon be king, she tries to secure her sons a place in Jesus's kingdom. I've met moms like that. The ones that push their children and try to finagle favors for them. Jesus talked to her about kingdom priorities...that being great means becoming small....and that Jesus came to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage. I was thinking about what a good description this is of life. Held hostage....and then Jesus makes us free. That's pretty stinkin' awesome! Sometimes I forget that I've been set free. I wander in darkness as if I am still a hostage to sin. It seems to be a learned behavior to walk every day like I've been set free.



Random blurbs about life: While I was freaking out about my flu shot today, I was reconsidering getting a tattoo. I have my design picked out, planning to get inked maybe for my birthday, but I really don't like needles and I don't do pain. I don't even tweeze my eyebrows 'cuz it hurts.



What do you buy your wife who's not very girly, but who's a facebook junkie and a bloggin' fool? high-speed internet and unlimited texting. Major brownie points for the husband! After I sent out a mass message that my texting is back, I had over 30 messages in my inbox in about an hour. So excited to be reconnected to the world. Seriously...having to have real conversations with people....what's up with that?

Too bad about the missing blog...it was a very spiritual moment.

AWESOME DAY

It was an awesome official launch for the Crossroads Community Church today. We had great worship, interesting preaching, and saw God move in incredible ways. Thanks for all your prayers over the last year. Please continue to pray for us as we begin meeting weekly and become a "real?" church. (Not sure what else to call it)

Many of my friends made it to the service today. It really meant a lot to me that they love me enough to want to be present on my "big day". I am richly blessed with great friends. Many times a day I take stock of my life and am amazed that God has brought me to this moment in time with the incredible people that he has surrounded me with. There might be better, more amazing people on the planet somewhere, but that is mighty hard for me to believe.

I'm not sure what ever happened to that kid who got picked last in P.E. I'm pretty sure that my coolness factor is still not that high, but I serve a God with the best coolness factor ever, and he deserves all the credit for the amazing relationships that I am blessed with.

It is overwhelming and humbling to try to fathom the greatness of God and the privilege to serve alongside him. I only want to have the courage and the faithfulness to stay on the big adventure with God - wherever that may take me in life. And I hope that God protects me from my own stupidity factor well enough that I don't screw it all up :)

Just a Swingin'

Tomorrow's a busy day. I'm taking my artist, Katie, to the art museum in Fort Worth to see the impressionist exhibit. She is so excited and just can't wait. Because I plan to sleep as late as possible in the morning, I am blogging tonight.

I don't have anything wow or new or earth-shattering to share - just a couple of thoughts about relationships. Today I had the privilege to hang out with some of my best friends. I had lunch with some girls from Pottsboro, I spent the afternoon with some girls in Anna, and the evening with friends from the new church plant. I love the creative energy and the laughter and the support and the care among the people that are on our church planting team. I sat in the porch swing tonight working a song with friend who is new to songwriting. (yeah, I know what you are thinking ...."just a swingin'") I was really proud of the songwriter for finally working up the courage to share his song with other people. The rest of the team was lounging on the porch, just visiting and hanging out.

My girl - friend sitting with me in the swing said, "Why has it taken us so long to do this?" She was talking about just taking time to hang out with the people that we love. I don't know why it has taken us so long to make time to just enjoy relationships. It seems like such a simple thing - spending time with the people you love. God is all about relationships, but life gets out of control and time flies by quickly. Hopefully this fall I can remember that relationships are more valuable than all the "stuff" that I have to get done.

To all my friends - help me remember to focus on the important stuff - you guys!

Flair addiction

I have to go to work tomorrow so I'm doing the blog thing a day ahead of time for those of you who harass me to hurry up and update every day.

I truly must confess my newest addiction/obsession. I love flair on facebook! I spend way too much time checking to see if anybody has sent me flair and way too much time checking out flair to send to other people. It's so much fun to see what people think about you and how well they know you and your interests by seeing the flair they send.

Today was a good flair day. I received tons of flair from my friends. I do understand that how much flair I receive on any given day is not a true gauge of how much I am loved. But it sure makes me feel special. One friend sent me like 10 flairs - does that make us best friends?

Okay - bored with my rambling and ready for the point yet? Today a friend sent me this awesome flair that said, "Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, the devil says, 'Oh, crap, she's up'!" I love that idea that I can strive to be that type of woman who works hard to be a formidable enemy to our Great Enemy. It makes me feel like shouting a battle cry or something. How cool is that!

Pray for my success tomorrow - my first day on the new job. I'm pretty stinkin' nervous.

How I was kidnapped and lived to tell about it.

It came from nowhere, totally out of the blue. One minute I am working up a new song with a friend, and the next minute someone is yelling at me to hurry up and get my shoes, we're going to the movies. Some of my close friends planned out this escapade with Shawn. He joyfully babysat all four kids, while I went with my friends to see "The Dark Knight."

To fully understand how awesome this was, you have to know that these three girlfriends who kidnapped me are die-hard chick-flick fans. Yet because they love me, they sacrificed because I am not so much a chick-flick kind of girl. They planned in advance what movie we were seeing and allowed no discussion. It was all about what I would like the best. (Some of them had not even watched the last batman movie.)

This is a measure of true friendship - loving someone enough to plan a surprise that you know is perfect for them. Even when it's not your favorite. I am certainly blessed to be loved by women like this.

Oh yeah - and we went to starbucks, too. They bought me my favorite coffee - huge treat - church planters don't buy starbucks coffee - it's way too expensive. Then we just hung out and visited for awhile - with no kids yelling or competing for my attention. WOW!

Now - just to have a deep thought - "The Dark Knight" was stinkin' awesome. I was very impressed by the development of Harvey Dent's (Two Face's) character. It was such a powerful reminder to me that we are all just a moment - just a few choices away from darkness. Even the best among us have potential for great and horrible evil. It is God's presence that prevents the darkness from swallowing us all. I am reminded to be thankful every day for my sanity and my deliverance from evil.

I am stinkin' rich!

No, I have not inherited a large sum of money. Donors have not sent us multi-millions. But tonight as I sat at the dinner table, I was overwhelmed by just how rich I am. Many months ago when God began to call us into church planting, we were so concerned about our finances. We begged God to just keep food on our table so that our children would not be hungry. Tonight as I gazed across the table at all the food, and looked at the friends who had joined us at the table, I was moved by how much God has blessed us in recent months.

He has provided for all of our financial needs. We have so much food that we have to invite people to come help us eat it. And then best of all, we have lots of friends to invite! I am loving having people in my home at all hours of the day and night, hungrily seeking God and loving each other and reaching out to others. The excitement among our friends is almost tangible when they begin working together.

Tonight two women were on my couch, working out children's ministry details. They were excited about Sunday, about worship, and about church! On my piano bench was a young man, trying to show me the song that God had placed in his head when he woke up this morning. And we all know how much I love that kind of thing. All around us were children running like mad. In other words - absolute chaos! And it was BEAUTIFUL!

When we followed God out of obedience into church planting, I had no idea that this is what it would be like. Hard, yes. Long hours, absolutely. Amazing, you bet. I am so blessed to be called, and more blessed to be able to share that calling with incredible friends. I am stinkin' rich!