Tuesday, July 30, 2013

waiting

Waiting is hard.

Today is Tuesday. On Friday I am supposed to buy a house.

I say "supposed to" because I haven't gotten word from the lender on how much the actual check should be for. This is the last step in this big, bad process of buying a house. Once I go get the check, I think everything will be good. Then I just have to go to the closing and sign my name a bajillion times.

For now, I'm waiting.

Since I sold my condo a couple weeks ago, when people ask where I am living I say "Camping in Mom and Dad's basement". And that is the truth. But really it is not a hardship. There is a kitchen down here, and a full bathroom, and a nice bed. And plenty of room to have some of my stuff. Not all of my stuff, but certainly enough to live for a couple weeks. As well as free laundry, offers of dinner, and a garage door opener. No, I am NOT roughing it.

But...

I am waiting.

I am ready to go to the closing.

I am ready to move in. I am even EXCITED about moving in. I am even excited about the actual MOVING!

I think the waiting is the hard part. Knowing what is coming, but having to wait.

...

As you MIGHT be able to tell, patience is NOT my strong suit.

So for now I will wait. And pray for patience.
K

Sunday, July 21, 2013

leash

This is Dolly.


She is my Mom's dog.

Well, I guess technically she is Mom and Dad's dog, but when it really comes down to it, she is Mom's dog.

This week, Dolly was my dog.
Mom and Dad were out of town, so I was housesitting, and dogsitting. Cat sitting too, but the cat didn't do anything except lay in her bed.

I took Dolly out for walks twice a day, and we had fun. Yesterday we saw THREE bunnies on our walk! It was very exciting, and she almost pulled me all the way up the hill because dogs chase bunnies.

But one day, we were walking and there was someone out on the sidewalk with a blower. Dolly did not like the blower. I kept walking, because, well, it is a blower. But Dolly really didn't like it, and stopped. In fact, I think she backed up. And then, she pulled out of her leash. As the leash came zipping back to the leash handle, I realized that it wasn't around Dolly's neck anymore. I turned around, and Dolly was stopped still in the middle of the sidewalk. She didn't know what to do now that the leash wasn't attached to her anymore.

So I reached down and slipped the collar and leash over her head, and we were off as usual.

But as we finished our walk, it occurred to me that Dolly is fine while the leash is on her. But once it comes off, she doesn't know what to do. It is very disconcerting to be out in the wide, wide world with no leash on.

And isn't that what the Bible is for us? It allows us to roam freely and safely within a certain limits, but once the leash comes off, all bets are off and the likelihood that we will be hurt goes up exponentially.

I thought it was interesting that Dolly didn't like being off the leash. And that she KNEW when she was off the leash and it stressed her out. I guess it just goes to show that we all need limits.
K

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

LIFE2013

Oh wow.

This week has been HUGE.
Every 3 years my church denomination puts on a huge youth conference. It's like summer camp on steroids. And not in the woods.

But is IS pretty stinkin' awesome. I just got back, and this year was no exception.

We were in St. Louis this year, and it was great! There were awesome speakers, a concert by LeCrae, different seminars every day, lots of great time with my youth group kids, and even some great time with other youth group kids.

One thing I really appreciate is that the content that they presented was deep. It was meaty. We sat through sessions twice a day, plus 2 seminars each day, and for everything I went to the content was right on and very full. No fluff here.

There was service - for 3 days, a group of 2000 kids went out into the city of St. Louis and worked. We cleaned out an old cemetery, we painted a ballpark, we carried trash out of several different places, and it was great. I think when kids throw their hearts into serving others, great things happen.

We talked about God's mission, and how God's mission becomes your purpose. When you are called of God, His mission becomes yours. And he calls you to do this in lots of different places. Sometimes He calls people to go overseas, but most of the time He calls you to do His mission right where you are.

We sang to a video about cranking a chainsaw?!?!?!?

We ghosted people. Well, I didn't ghost anyone, but I did get ghosted. :)

We spent time talking about things that are going on in my kids' lives, and how they respond to what God is doing.

We listened to each other talk about what God was telling them, and their response.

There were seminars on lots of different topics: Identity in the post-church generation, spiritual disciplines, missionary panel, Jesus and consumerism, how to choose a college, how to be a Christian artist in a non-Christian world, and so many more.

It was a great week, and I'm grateful to have gotten to go. I'm grateful that there wasn't any major drama. I'm grateful that we all made the 14 hour drive back.
K