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Some people believe that there are many ways to God, that all religions end in the same place. I believe that there is one way to God, through His son, Jesus Christ. But I also believe that there are many different paths that people take to encountering Jesus.

Some meet Him on the road
Some meet Him at a miraculous feast
Some meet Him while crying at His feet
Some meet Him in the clutches of a self-righteous mob armed with stones
Some meet Him after denying they ever knew Him
Some meet Him as a child healed from sickness
Some meet Him as the first sight for an old man blinded for life
Some meet Him in the pew of a church
Some meet Him in a coffee shop
Some meet Him early in life
Some meet Him right before their last breath
Some meet Him in moments of pure joy
Some meet Him at the absolute end of themselves

The place, the time, the situation are all our own; special, unique, and miraculous to each of us but the one thing that unites us all is that we've met Him.

"Better than nothing"

Is it a good thing when your boss makes the following statement?

"Well there was Katie and she's better than nothing."

Good thing I have a wicked sense of humor and a pretty secure opinion of myself, that and sarcasm is my natural language.

Maybe I should make t-shirts with that ego booster.

"Better than nothing"

Would you buy one?

Background Music

The worship team for this Sunday is practicing in the office right down the hall from me. So as I sit at my desk going about my work, the sounds of praise and worship music fill the empty silence.


I could get use to this.

Been thinking

So it seems that the deep thinking, pondering, contemplating Katie has taken a break of late. It's not that I haven't been thinking, or pondering, or even contemplating but it's been more internal and often lost in the urgency of the immediate. Maybe when I'm not face first in a struggle my vision quickly drifts away from staring intently at my own heart and what God's working within it. So for whatever reason, I've just been a bit more quiet when it comes to matters of the heart. I'm not sure if this is a temporary drought of words or a season without much rain, so we'll just have to see. I do know that I'm not too keen on forcing myself. As I look back on things I have written I know that they have come from my heart at that exact moment. I'm anything if not spontaneous in my own depth of thought and introspection.

One thing I do know is that God is sovereign through all of this. Of all His qualities and attributes, those we can see clearly and those that are shrouded in mystery, this is probably my absolute favorite. And yet I often find it hard to put into words what God's sovereignty is, so let's take a look at some definitions.

Sovereignty:
1. the quality or state of being sovereign.
2. the status, dominion, power, or authority of a sovereign; royalty.
3. supreme and independent power or authority in government as possessed or claimed by a state or community.
4. rightful status, independence, or prerogative.

Here are some other key definitions:
1. Complete independence and self-government.
2. "pre-eminence"
3. of God, his absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure

So maybe we need to take a look at the key part of the word:

Sovereign (adjective)

1. belonging to or characteristic of a sovereign or sovereignty; royal.
2. having supreme rank, power, or authority.
3. supreme; preeminent; indisputable.
4. greatest in degree; utmost or extreme.
5. being above all others in character, importance, excellence, etc.
6. efficacious; potent.

So now that the vocabulary lesson is over with, I'm not sure if that helped at all. While I may not be able to fully grasp or more likely convey God's sovereignty, I know that the not knowing almost makes me more in awe of Him. That part of God that we can never fully grasp because the shadow of it on this world is so vague and incomplete. He is the great I AM and that He might turn his eye toward me, know my name, and even think to begin to love me overwhelms me everyday.

This is a quote from a recent BSF lesson on Romans. I'm citing the souce because it's copywrited.

" . . . It is because God is God. He is sovereign in all He does. He is good and He is faithful. He keeps His word and determines all contingencies. God's purposes at the end are exactly what they were at the beginning."

I love that last line, His purposes are exactly the same at the end as they were at the beginning, and they stay the same throughout our lives. God's purposes are always true and good and for His glory. His purposes for me are born of love, held up by his perfect will, just and right, and they are constant throughout the very inconsistencies that I bring to the situation. And so when I find myself questioning His purposes all along this path He has lain before me, I can trust that they are the same, they are never bending, they are His alone, and they are good.

Obersvations

If given the choice between an escalator and a set of stairs the people at my conference will ALWAYS choose the escalator . . . even if the line for the escalator is so long that I've reached the top of the stairs before the person I by-passed has stepped foot on the escalator. Taking advantage of technology? Or just plain laziness?

A full to overflowing garbage can is not a deterrant to just stacking your used lunch pack on the floor next to the garbage can. EVEN when there is a nice and empty can about 10 yards away.

Snack has a very different definition at the church and at the nearby Renaissance Hotel. Church = water bottles, granola bars, pretzles. Hotel = this AND smoothies in champange flutes, rassberry yogurt shooter (seriously am I at a children's ministry conference? shooters? The trouble maker part of me wants to ask when Happy Hour is or where the keg is stored. Don't worry I didn't . . . yet.)

Lunch also has a different take. Yesterday at church= Chicken salad, yogurt, roll, chocolate. Hotel= Some sort of asian noodle with carrots and bell peppers along with spring rolls. I think I might have liked the sandwich and pasta salad they had at the church. I'm a simple girl.

Hmmm that's it for now. I'm sure there are more observations I'll come up with. One thing is for sure this isn't the woman's conference I went to last year with lots of NEON and those sparkly purses that were co-oped from the pre-teen set by the 40+ crowd.

Catch you all later.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT:
I'm rockin the Minivan. Just me and my minivan (reminds me of high school when i drove the family mini to school - I was so cool back then I could carry it off.) Really, I'm so cool I can barely stand myself.

On the road again

I'm off to a conference for the rest of the week. I'll try to crack open the ol laptop and pop in for some posting here and there.

Remember that time . . .

That I went to Walmart at 4 am in search of some Oragel and passed out in the check out line?

Scary? Yes.

A little but funny? Sure.

So here's the back story. I had a slight toothache on Thursday afternoon, nothing that a few advil couldn't handle. But as the night wore on it became full-blown whole mouth on fire type pain. And of course I start thinking about that scene in Castaway, you know the one, with the ice skate. Oh boy. After hours of self-medication and my attempt to just numb my face with ice I went out into the night in search of something that would actually just numb the pain away. Unfortunately there isn't much open 24 hours around my place so after a bit of driving around I headed for the nearest Wally-world.

I've realized that when I'm in pain all attempts at rational thinking are just a waste of time. I was a girl on a mission as I trodded through that Walmart in search of the tooth ache remedies. Also on my mind was my little adventure with an abscessed tooth on a hiking trip a few years back when my face swelled up so much I couldn't open my right eye (this is where you lose all sense of vanity of course).

Finally I found the Oragel and went in search of some ice cream, which served a two-fold process: 1. Cold and on my tooth equals good, 2. I'm in pain so I deserve ice cream (rational thinking for a woman at all times, trust me). With these two in hand I head to the lone check out stand where a nice girl was training (at 4 am?) and her current customer was having some difficulty getting her check to go through. Was I impatient? yes, but more in pain than anything. And as I stood there I felt an overwhelming sense of heat overcome me and the black curtain began to slowly close in on my field of vision. Of course being hard headed I just told myself to calm down and breathe. Hmmmm, that didn't work so well and next thing I know I'm laying on the ground with the checkers and customer leaning over me asking me if I was ok.

After calling in a code 81 (I think) which in my imagination means "Shopper down, SHOPPER DOWN" the manager appeared and offered to call an ambulance for me. Have I mentioned I'm hard headed? I politely refused (yep, even after passing out I still try to be polite) and not wanting to ruin anybody else's night I also refused to have them call someone for me (insert the anger of my family here - I know, I know I'll do it differently next time). About 20 minutes later after drinking a lot of water I felt back to normal, paid for my purchases, and drove the 5 miles home.

A quick visit to the dentist on Friday provided me with antibiotics and some good pain meds and I'm off today to have my tooth duly dealt with.

Happy Monday everyone.

Gypsy Boxer Babies

Now I realize that I am not a music reviewer, nor do I possess great wisdom of what makes a great live show verses a sucky one. BUT I do know that when I hear a band for the first time, have a blast watching and listening to them perform, and then book it to the paraphernalia table to pick up their CD it is qualified as a good thing.

Friday night I ventured into the Deepness of Ellum (you Dallasites know of where I speak) to hit The Gypsy Tea Room (just “the Gypsy” for the utmost hip) with my friend Kristi (shout out inserted here). We were there to see Matt Wertz (wearer of the tight pants) but were in for two opening acts beforehand. The first my friend was excited to see but the second neither of us had ever heard of, Steven Kellogg and the Sixers.

The set started off with a catchy tune playing over the sound system and in place of whatever actual game show or whatever it was hawking they had dubbed in the phrase “The Sixers”. Attention grabbing and with a quirky sense of humor I was already liking them. The band comes up and begins a set of just fun and catchy music. I love it when I can enjoy a live band and understand the songs without having to have studied the liner notes from a CD prior to the concert. They were fun, self depreciating, and good. I should take a moment to comment about the bass/keyboard/keytar player. He was entertaining just to watch. Staring off into a corner of the room at something the rest of us couldn’t see, he smiled and danced and jived his way through every song. It was a treat just to watch him play in his own little world of music amongst the rest of us.

And then the first of two glorious events occurred. Somehow the lead singer began a little ditty that included the words “Sometimes you just have to dance in your underpants”. This was all the invitation that the bass player needed to begin his own personal disrobing down to his skivvies (what a fun word to use). Now this wasn’t a night out with the bachelorettes but more of a comedic interpretation of a strip tease and then there was the dancing. I saw moves reminiscent of the love child of Napoleon Dynamite, MC Hammer, NKOTB, and David Lee Roth with a few jumps thrown in for the true Rock N Roll flavor. It was HILARIOUS. And of course he finished out the concert in his boxers still dancing to his own beat.

Rivaling the “underpants” interpretative dance was the final song which I have to say might have been my favorite part of the entire night. As soon as the beginning notes wafted from the strings of the guitar we were all magically transported to a ballroom and Patrick Swayze was uttering those famous words “Nobody puts Baby in the corner.” Yes, my friends this amazing band ended their time with us by singing “Now I’ve had the time of my life”. It was heartfelt, endearing, and again darn right hilarious. The duet between the lead singer and drummer was touching and I was pretty impressed by the high notes the drummer was hitting. It also struck me as so ironic that I was one of the “older” persons at this concert and EVERYONE was singing along. It’s nice to know that the joys of Dirty Dancing have not been lost on our young folk. To top it all off the lead singer asked us if we wanted to see the final lift which was met with a resounding YES. He stripped off his guitar, took a running start, and leapt into the arms of the boxer clad bass player.

BEST CONCERT EVER.

Real crazy vs. Appearance of crazy

I called a friend yesterday whilst I was in my car on my bi-weekly (twice a week not every two weeks) commute. After answering she told me the following:

"I was just talking outloud to myself in my car and decided to hold my phone up to my ear so people would think I was talking on the phone and not some crazy person talking to herself. Then the phone began to vibrate when you called and it scared me."
(the above was edited by request of said crazy person so as not to make her appear more crazy than she actually is)

I replied with:

"Don't you think that talking into a phone to talk to yourself is the actual definition of crazy while talking outloud to yourself is just the appearance of crazy? Are you saying you went for actual crazy over the appearance of crazy?"

Then we both laughed, probably because we are each a little bit actual crazy and often appear crazy. In fact, I talk to myself quite often, outloud even, especially while driving, AND I use my hands while I talk. Wait, maybe that's more "real crazy".

I HEART Hurley and other random topics . . .

Don't you just love it when something is just so perfectly funny that you laugh immediately and then later after remembering it, you begin to laugh again. Such was the episode of LOST last night. I just love Hurley and how he always makes me smile and laugh.

Speaking of laughing, if you know me (and a few of you do) than you might have noticed that I have a tendency to begin speaking before my thoughts are fully formed. This leads to some interesting comments that come flooding out of my mouth and laughter ensues on the part of anybody in earshot distance. Yesterday was one such instance.

I was asking one of the other church staffers for some recommendations on books and he asked what genre I was wanting to read. (Ok, so he didn't say genre, he listed different topics but I figured I'm about to admit that I can come across as a complete idiot at times so I should throw in a "smart sounding" word to temper this whole story.) I respond with this gem of a statement:

"I'm up for anything . . . I like reading . . . things . . . ."

And this is where our admin gal so sweetly laid her head on her desk and broke down laughing AT ME. (Mind you I was thinking of all the different subjects that I enjoy reading on and trying to come up with a way to say that I'm interested in SO MUCH that it's hard to narrow it down to just one area and I would gladly take recommendations on ANYTHING, but oh no I can't formulate those words quick enough to prevent the laughing.)

So I of course follow it up with this statement:

"I'm really a smart person, I promise, I just don't always sound like one."

Yep, I'm a winner all right.

*SIGH*