I know I am not a "blogger", this is obvious based on the fact that my last post was back in April. My goal is still there to make sure I don't go a full year without posting something-so at least that is working for me.
There have been a few things that have taken place over the past few months that made me think "I should blog about that", of course I haven't....until now.
I am amazed how God is in control of our lives. Of course I always think I am in control of it and sometimes get in the way of God. But there are days like today that I am GENTLY reminded who really is in control.
So I wake up early to get my properties mowed to beat the rain, but more importantly I wanted to go to Starbucks and read a little. This might not sound odd, but to those who know me-I never take time and go to Starbucks to read and relax. I use Starbucks as a place to give me more energy to do more crazy things throughout the day....never relax.
So I get the mowing done and get ready to head out.
A few weeks ago Erik (a guy from my small group) got a job at Starbucks, so instead of heading to the 4 that are within 2 miles of my place-I decide to head to his. Of course they decided today to close 116th street off of Keystone, so it took me way longer than I thought it would and actually contemplated going to a different one. But I didn't and headed into the store, ordered my drink and sat down in a comfortable chair. The Management Team at Grace is starting a new book and we need to have a portion of it read by Thursday's meeting-so that's the book I brought along (I will tell you the title later). Sitting there I started to read the introduction, and made it through the first page when Erik came over and started to talk to me. He was done with his shift (which started at 5:00 am) and was about to head out. We talked about a lot of random stuff for about 15 minutes. He went to grab something from the counter when I realized that the lady sitting in the chair next to me was reading a book also. I couldn't see the title of it, but I thought how distracting we probably were and if it was the other way around I probably would have moved already. So I apologized if we were bothering her, of course she said that were weren't. Erik came back to the area and realized we were in a totally different conversation than when he left.
I wasn't really sure how everything got started, all I know is I was head deep in a conversation with a total stranger in need. Within just 10 sentences of asking her if we were bothering her I found out that her father just passed away and she was so confused with life, her Church and the lack of friends around her. I said good-bye to Erik and continued with the conversation. She longed for her Dad to be alive, she lost her mother 9 months ago and her Dad lived with her till he passed. It was an unexpected death, but more than that she was alone. She was an only child whose best friends were Mom and Dad, and now she was alone. She has been going to a church in the area for years, but it was "the Presbyterian thing to do", not that she was really feeling fed there. She really is in tune with the presence of God, and longs to grow that relationship-but she is not being helped or fed by her church. So some how we got talking about Grace, the presence of God, and how we needed to work hard every moment of the day to see how God was working in us and through us. She wants to come to Grace this Saturday and is excited about Church and the possibilities of seeing God working in and through the church to reach not only her but others. There was a lot more but that is the gist of it.
I left Starbucks realizing that I didn't read more than 5-6 paragraphs of my book, but I was fine with that. I was thinking "How did all that just happen"! How do you sit down and go from sorry-to what I described above? Well as I was driving I looked down and noticed that for the first time (since the staff day of service) I was wearing our "Grace Staff" t-shirt. It didn't even cross my mind as I put it on today. Better yet the title of the book that I was reading (or trying to)..... The Attentive Life, Discerning God's Presence in ALL Things! I started to smile and then thanked the Lord for my wonderful Starbucks experience this morning.
