Musings on a Sunday Afternoon

What a wonderful thing it is to be home on a Sunday afternoon after a morning spent with the Father, and to be without ministry agenda (for today, that is). I love days off.

My last day off, Wednesday, was spent shopping, cleaning house, and preparing for a "Peer Group Party" held at the Strudel on Wednesday evening. Aside from the cleaning, I love getting ready to entertain. And, the prospect of meeting people my own age, in a similar stage of life, who live in Tucson was incredibly exciting. However, I have discovered something about myself. I love throwing parties, but as soon as the first guest shows up, I'd rather go hide in my bedroom. I spend all day long getting the house to look just right, putting together platters of food, decorating the table with a beautiful spread for people to enjoy...and then the actual party starts and I'm ready to go get time alone. By the way, here's the spread:

So, having discovered this thing about myself, I figured out that if I can just get into a conversation with one person at a time, then I'm usually okay. And, if I can take occasional forays into the kitchen to refill a tray or outside to dispose of the trash, that gives me just enough alone time to make it through the night. What kind of a partier am I?

I will note that the party was a huge success, and we plan to do one again before the semester ends.

On Friday, we were privileged to have Bill Thrall come and speak at our NavNite. Although I had heard the name and even read one of his books, I'd never heard him speak before. I was enTHRALLed...(get it? His last name is Thrall, and I was enthralled by him. I crack myself up.) In all seriousness, when his talk was over, I was so ready to listen to him speak for another two hours. He spoke on entrusting ourselves to God and other people, using four words to explain his thoughts: TRUST, HUMILITY, GRACE, and LOVE. The idea which struck me most was when he said, "The degree to which I trust you is the degree to which you can love me." No matter how much God loves me or how much people love me, I will not experience that love if I don't trust them with myself. It's an incredible concept, and I get excited thinking about how my life could look if I truly grasped it.

Yesterday was a good day. Every once in a while God lets me see a picture of how He is working in a student's life or on the campus, and it always blows me away. This semester has already seen it's share of Satan winning battles, but last night I got to see Jesus working toward victory in a student's life. I was humbled to share a sweet moment of God's pursuit of a student's heart, and her responding to Him. Who am I that God would choose to allow me to be a part of that? I am humbled by and grateful for it. What an incredible God I serve!