What a memory!

Last night is a memory I hope to carry with me for the rest of my life. It started around my table, soup & sandwich combo + best friend = fabulous time. It just got better from there. We headed downtown to see Seal in concert. Fun tidbit, Lee and I both saw Seal at perform at a concert in the early nineties. We were there separately and it was before we had met. It was such a special treat that we were going together this time.

We got there and found that we could sit together even though our tickets called for us to split up. We ended up in front of a mom and daughter. It was the daughter's first time to attend a concert and she was so excited. I was thrilled to see that Peter Cincotti was the opening act. I enjoy his music and knew Lee would too. He did!

When Seal took to the stage he was as good as he had been when I saw him all those years ago. He has a bigger repertoire to draw from now and sang from every stage of his career. His last song of the night was a cover of "People Get Ready." It has long been a favorite of mine, it has been around almost as long as I have. I have heard it sung by different artists. I have sung it around a campfire, on the beach, at a prayer march, and at a peace vigil. It never fails to touch my soul. I hope it touches your soul too.

People get ready
There's a train a-coming
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels humming
Don't need no ticket
You just thank the Lord

People get ready
For the train to Jordan
Picking up passengers
From coast to coast
Faith is the key
Open the doors and board them
There's room for all
among the loved the most

There ain't no room
for the hopeless sinner
Who would hurt all mankind just
To save his own
Have pity on those
whose chances are thinner
Cause there's no hiding place
From the Kingdom's Throne

So people get ready
for the train a-coming
You don't need no baggage
you just get on board !
All you need is faith
to hear the diesels humming
Don't need no ticket
you just thank, you just thank the Lord.


thanking the Lord,

jené

Saw this on another blog and just couldn't resist placing it here. She's is absolutely precious and makes it impossible for me to say memorization is too hard.


Smiling,

jené

Bright moments

There have been several bright moments this past week. Times that had my heart reveling in joy! Most of them make sense. My mom and dad were able to come spend a couple of days with me. That always brings a bright spot. Mom and I stayed up late into the night talking about everything and nothing. You know, the kind of thing you do with someone who will love you no matter what you say. There were silly moments of light too. Out in front of HEB singing "Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener." Who knew my dad knew the words? Later we went to see my favorite family and watched with great hilarity as three little girls performed their show for us. All of these moments shine brightly in my memory as I review the week.

On Monday my parents headed home and I headed off to work. I worked until early afternoon and then went to meet a friend at a funeral. We were going to support Keith who was burying his only daughter. The service was a spectacularly bright moment. We had gathered to commemorate what to most would seem a short life. Leigh was 29 when she joined Christ in Heaven. Instead we celebrated all she had done in those years. She traveled and lived around the world. She made good use of her creative skills. But the most important thing she accomplished was in causing everyone who met her to love her. She stayed very close to her family no matter how far away she lived. Everywhere she went she gathered people to her as friends. The only thing everyone at the service had in common was Leigh. See, she knew we need to take the light of God's love wherever we go. I hope when I am gone people will think of me the way I think of Leigh.

Appreciating the light,

jené

sensory overload

These last few weeks have been a mercurial journey from joy to sorrow and back again. The soul happy times of service in Project 180, supporting a friend as she completed a daunting task, the privilege of sharing the moment with one of God's children as she realized the need to give Him her all, brought joy beyond measure. Friends who lost their tiny baby, increasing pain and limitations, and heartache for someone suffering through a difficult bedside vigil ending with the loss of his daughter, brought the weight of sorrow.

In all of this there has been a great awareness of God's grace and mercy. I learned long ago life is better if I relinquish all control to Him. It doesn't mean a smooth journey is ahead, it just means there is comfort in the journey. I have been recalling my favorite Spurgeon Quote often of late:

"The shadow of God is not the occasional resort,
but the constant abiding place, of the saint.
Here we find not only our consolation, but our habitation,
not only a loved haunt, but a home.
We ought never to be out, of the shadow of God.
It is to dwellers, not to visitors, that the Lord promises his protection.
' He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.'"
C.H. Spurgeon

Oh so comforted to live in His shadow,
jené

Loving God means loving my neighbors

This was the best way to spend a day off! I had a blast!

Spent a couple of hours Wednesday before small group stuffing Easter eggs. My assignment Saturday was to stuff hot dogs into buns and wrap them in foil. A big change from years past. I have shoveled dirt, dug holes, painted classrooms and moved furniture. I am so glad my limitations this year did not keep me from serving. Project 180 has been the highlight of my spring for 4 years now and I didn't want to give it up.

Grateful to love my neighbors,

jené