The Random and the Sublime

Hey, Darling Things!

It's late afternoon on Friday and we'll close up the ministry in just a little while for a three-day weekend. I thought I'd say hi before I pulled out of the driveway because I've come to love you so much and, like many times during the course of a ministry week, you are on my mind. One way you can tell when people are truly getting close is an unexplainable interest in the utterly trivial and otherwise unbearably mundane. (An interest in the trivial alone doesn't cut it. Celebrity gossip would qualify for that. To legitimately become intimate friends you must also care, for instance, that it looks as though she might be using a different hair product or could that be a new pair of shoes she's got on today?) Hence this post. But it may be one-sided, of course. Maybe I'm just perceiving that we're close. But in hopes that it's a two-way relationship, below are a few random things from the average life of your own Siesta Mama. In response I'd love to know one completely random thing from your life right now.

1. Keith and I went grocery shopping together a couple of nights ago. He was pushing the basket. He asked me to please walk down the paper aisle and grab a 12-pack of toilet tissue then, as I walked back toward him, proceeded to take off almost running so I'd have to chase him through the store with it. Can you spell M-A-T-U-R-E? And don't think I'm just referring to him because I was laughing so hard I almost needed to use some of it. The person at check-out asked us how long we'd been married because we were still so amused by one another when we got there and because I was hitting him in the arm with my fist (a well-known flirting technique). Imagine her surprise when we answered 30 and a half years. By the way, we're really in love right now. I'm so glad I let him live through last year.

2. If perhaps you heard that Geli, our birddog, has been so sick that she nearly died, it is the absolute truth but she's finally getting better. She was in the fanciest animal hospital in Houston for a solid week, much to Keith's dismay on multiple levels. The diagnosis? Somewhere along the way she ate something dead and got food poisoning from it. It caused a bacterial infection that went through her digestive system and into her lungs. Of course, Keith and I thought that carnivores like most humans and canines were supposed to eat stuff that was already dead instead of eating it while it's still alive and kicking but we are now better educated. Geli has a penchant for eating inappropriate things. A month ago we had to take her to the vet for eating a live frog. We informed them what had happened to which they replied, "That can't be it. She must have a stomach ailment of some kind." They took x-rays and, lo and behold, her stomach ailment had four legs and four feet. Perhaps that is why she then turned to carrion from which she indeed derived a very expensive stomach ailment.

3. I will list this one among the random though it is neither trivial nor mundane. I am leaving early in the morning for the wedding of our LPL praise-team drummer, Kevin and his beautiful bride-to-be, Ashley. He is the one who proposed on stage at an LPL in June. (Pittsburg) Our whole team will be there and we are super excited! Perhaps this seems to have come awfully fast in your estimation but, I assure you, it could not come fast enough for the two of them. From the moment I saw them lock eyes, I suggested we move ahead with the date. They are terribly smitten.

Oh, mercy! It's already time for me to be downstairs saying goodbye to my dear coworkers for a long weekend and locking this sweet place up! I know you must feel so cheated that I can't keep going! Before I sign off, how about a little news from the sublime category?

1. To the great glory of my faithful God, I finished the book on women's insecurity and have even been through the editing process and, except for a few finishing touches, it is ready to be type-set and sent off for print. THANK YOU, LORD!!! I will tell you more about it later but the release date is February 2nd. I have never had anything besides Breaking Free and When Godly People Do Ungodly Things get to me like this one. God turned me every way but loose on this project.

2. Our Houston Tuesday night Bible study starts the day after Labor Day! We can hardly wait to be reunited with our home girls! We miss them like crazy all summer long. Picture them from every age, background and denomination. In fact, they are a cross section of this community in so many ways. They are so incredibly dear to me. We are going to share a lecture series on the Book of Revelation. We just thought we'd do something light for a change.

OK, I'm late! I better go! Have a fabulous weekend, Girls! I pray that God does something really wonderful to bring you Sabbath rest this Labor Day. I love you!