Let's Make a Weekend of It

This weekend I went to Kutztown to visit some friends. It involved piercings, spending time with my man, new & old friends, "lunch meat casserole", Man on Fire, a Matt Reffie original sermon, and sushi. Getting away from the midstate for a few days was hugely rejuvenating. My life has been lacking challenges as of late, and it was a breath of fresh air to get away from home.

On Sunday morning Reffie preached on engagement - in particular, Jesus' parable on "the kingdom of heaven is like a bunch of bridesmaids waiting for their friend's groom to show up." Half of them didn't have enough fuel for their torches, so they went to the store to get some and ended up missing the party. Engagement isn't about waiting around for your wedding day, it's about preparing: calling the caterer, making hair appointments, getting facials, working out to look good in your gown [and out of it, afterward]; renting a tux, working hard, saving money, preparing a home for your bride. Jesus told His disciples that He was going to His Father's house to prepare a room for us. He's getting ready for us, His bride. Are we getting ready for Him?

That sermon was refreshingly challenging & convicting. Thanks, Cornerstone.

I spent today resting after a crazy weekend, and in studying the Word, especially in preparation for girls' small group on Wednesday. Our discussion topic is prayer. What would be your input about it?

For your listening pleasure, a beautiful snippet of a John Piper talk:

That was good.

So, as it turns out, celebrating an anniversary can be pretty incredible. Greg and I had ours on Friday, and he came for the weekend to lavish his affection on me. I had work until 6 on Friday; I'd told him to meet me at home after that, but he decided to show up and surprise me anyway, after giving my sister a ride to work so I could switch the car over to her and he could take me home. A single red rose was on my seat in his car when I got in. When we got home, he snuck inside before me, and let me in to more roses and lit candles on the dinner table, which he set with an amazing meal of salmon, squash, rice, hummus, and olives [all my favorites!] After that, he pulled out a set of 6 straws of different colors, and I got to pick a color, which matched with the following activity for the weekend. First, he gave me some gifts - a book about relationship/communication stuff called His Needs, Her Needs, a bracelet, and a new Bible: exactly the same as my old one, but with a quality leather cover [this means I don't need to re-memorize where to find verses on pages, visually]. Best ever!! Then I got my chance to give him presents, which were a whole buncha photos from our Maine vacation that I had printed and framed, as well as a book and a worship CD. After that, we baked brownies together, and ate ice cream while watching The Never Ending Story. :-D

On Saturday I went to work while Greg drove around looking for photo opportunities. However, there were a lot of people working, so I didn't get to do anything and it was boring. Greg showed up early to pick me up and was sneaking around smelling things and making me nervous 'cause I was talking to customers. Then he took me to get sushi for dinner, we picked up Dan who'd returned from Iowa, and the rest of the evening we cleaned up our mess from Friday night and read together.

The next day, we went to be, um, teacher helpers? for the high school Sunday school class, and then went to church and after that was the first young adult group hangout time - a lunch, outside; it was fun. Helicopters can be distracting while you're eating on the deck, though. That afternoon, I napped while Greg watched a movie, and then after Nan made us dinner we went to see Fireproof, which was amazing and rather better than I'd expected. If you see it, stay for the credits; they're quite amusing.

Well, he left yesterday after taking me to work in the afternoon. Sooo, that was my fantastic weekend. Hoping to go to Kutztown next weekend, to get out of the house and see some school-type friends.

Work was actually really good today, because I had a lot to keep me busy. I'm so task-oriented!! I got to re-label lots of things, do a bunch of returns and some furniture purchases; one lady had Jesse and I taking different paintings and holding them over different tables, so she could figure out what she wanted. She was very kind about it, and we had quite an adventure going up and down ladders and trying to re-hang the canvasses. I do miss working at the Maps Department, though!!

What's going on?

Things becoming more constant:

• earning some money
• hanging out with youth group kids
• singing
• drinking tea [thank you, autumn]
• obsessively reading SCL
• wondering why the temptation to regret decisions and re-face them again is trying to squeeze into my line of vision
• wakening to some strange dreams. hm.
  

It's time to get excited about sweaters and deliciously comfortable socks. Cool, but not yet slushy cold - fall in PA is a good time.

Working in retail is actually pretty good. When your store is filled with luxury items and your shoppers are pleasant, upper-middle class ladies, people are happy customers. Pier 1 may be the opposite of the DMV. It smells great and makes me want to have a place of my own so I can collect glassware and decorate with incense burners and candlescapes.

Anyways, my rebellious self is grumbling and clunking like the old furnace in the basement of my heart. I should be so content, so joyful, so ecstatic with what God has given me, and yet when I see opportunities to even take a peek at other stuff, it's like I'm camping out in the parking lot at the paper mill, whose odor should make me puke. God's stuff is so much better than any of the crap I'm sniffing.

So He's called me to lead this small group for the girls in my church's youth group. I'm completely inadequate, unprepared, and unqualified to lead them in applicable Bible discussions. Let's see what He does with this...