Road Closed.

The scene is this: we are driving down the highway , I am in the back seat with my brother. Dad and and mom in the front. We fly by a warning sign that says, "Road Construction Ahead". It is followed by another "Caution" sign, a couple "Detour" suggestions, and then finally the giant orange and white barricade with flashing yellow lights and a hugantic sign that says "ROAD CLOSED".

Dad slows the car down and says, "Hm. Wonder what that means."

It's not a question. 

He's not really looking for an answer.

He's just pondering.

By nature my dad is not a rebel. He is the very definition of coffee without cream. When he questions a department of transportation sign, he is not questioning authority. He does not think that rules don't apply to him. Nor is he looking for adventure outside of the stock market and a good round of golf.

He just honestly believes that there is no road that is truly impassible.

Regardless of the vehicle he is driving, the number of warning signs, or the complete lack of any other traffic, he is confident that he and his Oldsmobile Cutlas can make it.

I'd like to have that same confidence in my faith. That unswerving faith in God that regardless of the doubt, issues or barricades, I know that the road ahead is not really closed. Not for Him and therefor not for me.

high maintenance.

When it comes to friendships, I am high maintenance.

To be honest, I think we all are. 

It takes more than one friend to support me in crisis, to run fast with me in service and to help me find my mind when I've misplaced it. 

It is unfair for us to expect one Best Friend to meet all our needs. And by the same token, I cannot meet all the needs of any one friend. If we could do that, if we had the ability to be everything that someone needs, then they would not need Jesus. 

So I step back, and I am profoundly grateful for the Circle that supports and sustains me:

she who encourages me to clean my bathrooms

she who knows my husband and explains his wiring

she who has a pantry I can borrow from

she who leaves her door unlocked for my kids

she who doesn't believe me when I say, "fine. just fine."

she who travels to the ends of the earth to see me

she who holds me accountable for time with my Lord

she who holds my hand when jumping in a cold lake

she who sits on the beach with me for hours and hours and hours

she who has smoked a cigar and giggled at the same time

she who listens to me on No Filter Fridays and forgives me

she who grants me grace in the stupid places of my life

she who is consistent

she who is spontaneous

it just takes a lot of 'shes'. 

don't go it alone.

and don't be threatened by others.

hmmm. more on that one later.

quote.

I wish I had written this:

"It's impossible to love God in a hurry. I typically view the person in front of me as an obstacle to accomplishing my true mission, but Jesus viewed the person in front of him as his true mission."

Vince Antonucci in I Became a Christian and All I got was this Lousy T-Shirt. Now, that's a good read.

For me it is easy to sit here on a nice, sunny afternoon and ponder who will be such a mission for me. Who will the Lord put in front of me tomorrow?

But the reality is that tomorrow I will forget today's conviction. Tomorrow I will be

• frustrated by the clerk at Wal-Mart
• irritated by the fry chef at Burger King
• annoyed with the insurance guy who calls
• and fed up with the warranty people on the phone

and at those moments, I am looking at myself. I am focussed on the interruption to my life. And I do not see what He sees. 

How foolish I am.

accountability partner hall of fame.

yesterday's post regarded the ridiculous gift from the Lord of moving an entire family to be with our family.

today, i would officially like to nominate peter jundt and his scary smart wife, heidi, into the accountability partners hall of fame. 

to move across the country to hold us accountable speaks of 2 things:

1. the jundt's depth of character, faithfulness and devotion

2. our depravity and need for accountability

how we see God's hand in this:

1. as we struggled for months to hear God's voice in this move, they sat for months with us and prayed

2. on the same day that john accepted the job here, peter lost his job there

3. heidi and i made a crazy 2.5 day trip down here to find a home for us

4. they were 'available' to help us move and spend 2 weeks with us here

5. heidi took isaac skateboarding while down here. she spoke to another mom at the park. and then the network began: one mom gave peter's resume to 3 contractors, who passed it on to 10 more firms and eventually peter got an interview, a call, another interview, and a new job

6. and the Lord was obvious. this one offer after 5 months of searching, eclipsed whatever else was out there.

7. in august i was bored. heidi and i took peter's computer and entered random 'things to do' on his calendar. including: buy a boat, make struedel, run for president and move to atlanta. we chose the random date of november 10 for 'move to atlanta'

peter's official start date has just been confirmed as november 10

when we entered it into his calendar he didn't even have an interview here

we are amazed

decades from now our children will look back at God's faithfulness and timing. their faith, like ours, will be stronger, deeper, richer because of this significant and profound moving of His hand in the lives of our 2 families.

they're coming.

seriously.

our friends, peter, heidi and their son isaac, have been a part of our life for years. even back when john had a comb and reason to use it, they were in our lives. 

we have walked thru the roughest seasons this earthly life can offer us. almost all of those seasons fall under the category of "losses". loss of family, loss of jobs, loss of passion, loss of nfl teams, etc. 

when the Lord called us to Atlanta, they helped us move. drove across the country and for 2 weeks unpacked, fixed, repaired, prayed, improvised and bridged a gap between what we knew and where we had landed.

and now the Lord is moving them here. to be with us.

WHO DOES THAT?

i continue to lose my thoughts in the middle of such unmerited, lavish favor from the Lord. He knew the most traumatic and brutal part of this move would be the separation from His people. we lost those who were comfortable, familiar, forgiving, hilarious, spontaneous, sensitive, and involved.

and then He sent them to us. 

WHO DOES THAT?

Trading Places.

Did you see the episode with the feuding neighbors? Incredible.

Two families, living 50 feet from each other, and been at war for 6 years. One family has a single mom raising 3 teenage boys. The other is a young couple with a 2 year old son. One family is very loud with garage bands, skateboarding and late nights. The other is frustrated with no privacy or protection from the noise. 

So they end up on the show. Mom and teen son re-doing a baby room, Young Couple re-doing a garage into a studio. 

Let the healing begin.

Seriously.

I know this is not a Christian show. I have no clue about the faith of the families. But this is evidence of God's Truth at work when they may not even see His hand.

They served one another, they walked in each other's shoes, slept in each other's homes, and took time to gain perspective. 

Talk about loving your enemy. Wonder if i would be so willing?

Lesson learned.

Save the man.

My dad's best friend was named Don. He was a larger than life kind of guy, with a laugh kind of like a volcano. I mean it truly erupted in a room and caught fire. In a good way. His love of life was highly contagious, which is probably why my dad was so drawn to him. 

For a couple years Don's business was in jeopardy. He stood to lose everything. For those few years Dad and Don would talk for hours every week. Repositioning, thinking, exploring and searching for solutions. A way to save his business. 

In October one year Dad's best friend Don died in a car accident. He was living life fast that afternoon, and paid a terrible price for it.

My dad was devastated. The loss was so great.

Because you see, my dad is a great man of faith. His personal relationship with Jesus is the center of his life. And although Don knew that about my dad, it was not the primary focus of their discussions. Not in the decades they had known each other, and certainly not in the last two years of intense financial crisis.

My dad later said to my mom, "If only I had spent those years trying to save the man, rather than save the farm."

Save the man. Always choose to save the man.

It is easy for me to lose site of Christ when the crisis hits. How do we spend our time when crisis hits? Problem solving? or with the One who can solve the problems?