Friday Five: Quick Pick Edition

Kathrynjz @ RevGals writes:

Greetings all!

We're in the midst of 'it' and I'm hoping that it is not just me who is starting to get a bit overwhelmed. So for today I am asking for five quick picks of things that are good in your life. 

And as a bonus, 1 pick for a thing you could do without.

If you want to describe them? Great.

If not? That's fine too.

Five good things in my life (this week):

1. Prayer with others and alone.

2. Friends who listen

3. A "way out"...cryptic but the one who provided will understand.

4. A convertible and air conditioning in unseasonably hot weather (seriously, last week we were on flood watch, this week it feels like the middle of summer.)

5. An afternoon with Adventure Boy.

Bonus:  Right now I could do without that anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach that just won't go away.  I just want answers!

Commercials

There are a few commercials out there right now that cause me to yell at the TV.  Gain and their "gooder" and Jello with the parents who terrorize their children come to mind immediately.  Incorrect English and awful parents, quite the combo.  I know, I know, I could just turn off the TV.  I don't.  Stop judging me.

There is one commercial that is old but still makes me giggle every time.  At staff meeting last week we had a discussion about Cadbury eggs and I stated that I loved the commercial where the animals are "trying out" to be the spokesperson.  No one on staff had seen the commercial, so I found it (thank you YouTube!) and emailed it out.  So far Pastor E. likes the lion or maybe the cat.   Children's Director A. shares my affection for the cat and Choir Director J. has yet to respond.

Here's the commercial...what say you?  And while you are at it, how do you feel about said Cadbury eggs?  Fabulous Office Admin and I say a hearty "Yes!" (which resulted in a fantastic surprise on our inbox's the next day).

Called and compelled

One week from tonight, in the middle of the night, I will be in Galveston, Texas with a team of 19 people.  We'll be starting a week of rebuilding efforts in response to 2008's Hurricane Ike.  Tonight, as Yo Momma, Papa Bear and I sat and talked about the trip it occurred to me that on April 2, 2006 in the middle of the night I was driving into the town of Pearlington, Mississippi to do Hurricane Katrina recovery work.  So much has happened in those 5 years, things expected and unexpected.  I am the same and yet not the same person that drove into that town with a sense of calling, purpose and Holy Spirit compelling. 

A couple of weeks ago part of a sermon I gave was on following the compelling of the Holy Spirit.  As I've grown in faith I've come to recognize when the Holy Spirit is pushing me into something, challenging me and I've come to recognize how I squelch that compelling Spirit, ignore it, deny it.  I challenged the congregation to ask themselves why they do things...do they act out of the compelling force of the Holy Spirit or because they are expected to do something or because they have been doing the task for so long it just has become something that they do, not something they enjoy or are inspired to do.  After the first service someone asked me if I felt the same compelling to Texas that I did to Mississippi.  My quick answer was no.  But I do feel compelled to support and encourage the youth in my care and so I go to Texas.

I've thought about that more, though, and my answer has changed.  I am compelled to help people, to love others, to bring hope to others lives, wherever that may take me.  If it's Texas, so be it.  It's a new challenge, a new opportunity to be stretched and to grow...but just so we are clear the people of Pearlington have first dibs on my heart, which is why I get home from Texas on the 9th and go to Pearlington on the 14th.  The call, the compelling of the Holy Spirit is still strong and so I go.

Let's talk about the weather

It's been a blustery, windy, rainy day here.  The rain poured out of the sky in abundance.  It's been raining pretty steadily all whole week and doesn't look to be stopping until sometime on Saturday...just in time to cancel the Golf Tournament, again.  Sigh.

Anyway, this week the ground has given way in a few places leaving some friends standing on one side of a mudslide with their house on the other side.  Usually, these slides are removed quickly but this one keeps shifting and moving and the rain keeps coming down so there's been little process in clearing the mud away.  The families on this particular road are adapting.

Today's storm caused our local emergency dispatch workers to earn their pay.  There's a couple of websites that someone just as curious as me (ahem**Meg**) pointed me to and I kept their feeds open on my browser pretty much all morning.  I listened to call after call come in of wires down, roadways flooded and watched outside my office window as the rain poured on.  I counted 11 different "wire's down" incidents in one sitting.  Trees were falling all over the place.  At one point a call went out for the local fire station, to which they responded, "we have no one to send out, everyone's busy, get someone else."  Kinda made me laugh.  (It was a false alarm, literally, BTW.)  A friend came by for about a half hour, just to talk, and while he was there a tree cracked and groaned outside...our eyes immediately swung to the window, watching and waiting for a tree to fall...nothing.  The power kept flickering and I knew that today was not going to be the day to get much done.  So I went to coffee with K and watched the rain come down from the warmth of the coffee shop and enjoyed an hour or so of conversation with a friend.  It was good.

There are many who are done with the rain, who want it to stop, who are ready for Spring and so on and so forth.  Not me.  I missed winter this year.  Granted, I live on the coast in CA, we don't get winter like the East Coast or Mid West but I missed our winter.  The two or three dry, balmy weeks in January were wrong, wrong, wrong.  The weather we are having right now, that's January winter.  The last couple of years our weather patterns have been all off.  Summer was cooler than fall, winter warmer than spring, something has shifted and it makes me wonder...what's next?  Is it going to be blazing hot summer?  Time will tell...

Those boys and the dark

The power went out at church tonight.  I was there, not for the Middle School Youth Group that was happening, but for the Vacation Bible School meeting.  It went out about 10 minutes after 7.  Forty minutes into youth group.  5 minutes after the power went out I got a text message..."power out at church, should I have the kids call their parents?" 

I've led youth group in the dark before.  Sometimes the lights stay off the whole time, sometimes they go on and off, sometimes it's only 10 minutes.  Seeing as how youth group, tonight, was almost halfway through and parents would be coming to church soon anyway, I left my meeting to find the propane lanterns and flashlights and to encourage the youth leaders to improvise.  And improvise they did.  I left as parents were picking up their kids (Hey, I'm not in charge on Tuesday nights!  YES!!) and the lights were still out.  But the youth leaders were their with flashlights in hand helping kids and parents get connected.  We have a great youth staff!

I was searching for the flashlights that have mysteriously disappeared (time to stock up again), I heard the sound of those boys.  You know the ones.  The brave boys.  The ones that are macho, have got it all together, to whom nothing is scary.  Those boys were the ones speaking in extra loud voices as they walked in the darkened hallways.  Those boys were a wee bit scared.  As I crawled into the dark and spider speckled storage space in search of the camping lantern (which was on top of the refrigerator, right where I had left it for emergencies such as these) I giggled to myself.  It's nice to know that beneath the rough exterior, those boys still are boys a little afraid of the dark. 

For the six that I know***

They say that it's insulting.
They say that they won't sign the paper.
They say that too many people stand accused falsely.
They say that it will never happen here.
They say that we shouldn't judge.
They say...
They say...

I say six.
Six people.
Six innocent people.
Six people unable to defend themselves.
Six people who weren't lying...who aren't lying
Six people that I know.
Six people.

There are more.
The more remain silent.
To protect themselves,
from those that say
it doesn't happen.

To those that say...
I have news.
It happens.
It's happened.
It's true.
I have a question...
What's more insulting
signing a paper that says it happens,
we will believe,
we will do our best to protect
or not believing the ones who were innocent,
who are not lying 
who were forever changed,

by something they didn't want
and couldn't stop?

I find that insulting.
The six would find that insulting...
and possibly feel assaulted...again.

***and for the ones that I don't know of, who have remain silent, who haven't yet shared.  I believe you.

The dress

For the last few years there have been three--wait make that four--"bridesmaid" dresses in my closet...one isn't really a bridesmaid dress but was worn at a wedding.  Three were actually worn in a wedding.  One was bought and then the wedding was canceled. 

The three that were worn were pretty.  One I didn't think I would like and wound up really liking.  If there was another occasion to wear it, I might...it has to be the right circumstances though.  The one that wasn't worn I liked.  I liked a lot.  It had a good shape, was a good color and with a little editing (those flowers) it would have been perfect.  It cost a good bit of money, so I've had a hard time letting it go.  At one point I thought maybe I would sell them on ebay or craigslist but I just didn't get there.

A month or so ago, I read in the local paper that a local cleaners was collecting used prom dresses.  They would clean them and then allow girls in the community who couldn't afford to purchase a new dress to come in and choose a prom dress.  I thought about those dresses in my closet...especially the one never worn and decided it was time.

The dress hung close to the door waiting to be taken away.  A friend came over, saw it and oohed and aahed over it...I knew it needed to go to a new home.  A week ago, I drove down to the cleaners.  I pulled up in front of the shop and retrieved the dress from my trunk.  As I walked in the door, the lady behind the counter looked up and literally dropped everything, ran around the counter saying "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" and gave me a big hug as she accepted the dress.  "It's beautiful" she exclaimed.

Somewhere, this prom season, some young lady, who doesn't fit the conventional idea of beautiful, will be stunning in a brand new dress...and I think that's good.