The Status of The Table, Some Good Stuff, and Sauteed Mushrooms

So. Hi peeps.

I'm waiting for a few hundred recent pictures to finish burning to a CD for John (how do you say that? do the pictures burn? or does the CD burn?), and since it is making my computer go slooooooow--too slow to work my current design project--I'm just going to type away here.

It seems we all agree that SOMETHING needs to change on that entryway table. The one thing it seems everyone agrees on the most is that I need to move the pineapple. So I've given it a different place of honor. I think I do need to at least put something under the little lamp. I'm going to try a pretty doily. I'll let ya know what happens.

Today was an absolutely wonderful day. You know, I don't think I fully appreciate being with my local church until I haven't been able to be there for a while. Due to the boys having half a million piggy-back sicknesses lately, I've been away from church more than I've been there. It was awesome. I feel incredibly refreshed. I love the people, and the music, and the messages, and every other little thing about it. I love my church. Not that it's obvious or anything.

(No, no... it's not perfect, I know that. I mean, COME ON, that's established by the fact that I walk in the building every week. But, hey, sometimes I think it's purty close.)

During our prayer request time in Sunday School this morning, a couple shared about the harrowing week they've had--major family health issues, a relative's death, car trouble, and several other crazy things happening that are completely out of their control. They smiled weary smiles as they told us about it, sharing not only the hard things, but the fact that they've seen God's hand in their lives as never before. After the husband finished sharing the specific things to be praying about this coming week, his sweet wife added one last request, before offering up a few soft-spoken thoughts.

To paraphrase... she said she's realized this week how easy it is to merely "say" we're trusting the Lord when only a few things are going wrong at once. We think we can still control it all, at least to some extent. So we make our best attempt to fix it, change it, or simply just control it, often further messing it all up and ending up even more stressed thanks to our efforts. But when everything goes crazy, everything is up in the air, and we know, without a doubt, that we have absolutely no control anymore... that's when the true beauty of our God can shine through. Because we have to just give it all up. We have to just let Him work. Sometimes the Lord has to get us to that place of complete surrender before He can really put His glory on display.

"And then," she said. "There is just something so liberating about taking our hands out of it and saying, 'Lord, I don't know what You're doing, but I know you're doing a much better job of it than I can.'"

I've been "chewing" on those thoughts all day. Really chomping on 'em. So much in my life these days is out of my control, and yet I often find myself still trying to make it all work out on my own. Or getting frustrated. Or discouraged. Or completely and utterly stressed out, PEOPLE!! When I know--in my head, at least--that all God asks of me is to give it over to Him. Just put it in His hands. Why is that always so hard to do?

Follow that little tidbit with a Sunday School lesson about letting the light of Christ shine in our lives, and then a sermon about simply following and obeying Jesus without excuses or "half-way-obedience" and, whew... it was like a feast to this nearly-famished soul.

A good Sunday. A really good Sunday.

Oh, and real quick--since my picture CD is done and I need to head to bed--I'm going to be doing that Q&A post here shortly, so if you've had a question for me for a while, or you just thought of one, or you simply want to know if I like sauteed mushrooms, here's your chance. Ask away. I'll do my best to answer any and all.

Okay, on the mushrooms thing, I'll just tell ya--NO. I do not. 'Nuf said.