Since it’s Wednesday and I am having trouble settling on just one point, I am sharing some randoms before I let the whole day get away from me. 

I am also planning to do a Facebook live and I am going to start calling it “And another thing….” because I always think of more things I want to tell you. We shall see where that lands, but for now…that’s the plan.

Random #1

Kids do say the darnedest things. And I am not sure how you spell darnedest but autocorrect is leading this charge so there you have it. 

Our four have had a pass around of fever and coughs and runny noses and somehow I have managed to be sitting on the couch quite a bit the past few weeks holding one or more. 

Last night as I was leaving I hugged poor Emmy and told him I loved him and if I don’t get sick it will be a miracle. 

He had barely said two words all day but rallied as he coughed one more time in my face and answered…”Cause you have been with me A LOT!!”

It was hilarious. 

Maybe he is just sick of me…hmmmm…..

Random #2

Jesus said we need to come to him like little children and sometimes I wonder if that means we should be arguing in the back seat of cars about someone looking at us AGAIN!!!! 

Or sneaking candy out of the cabinet. 

Or micro-debating why we don’t need to put our stuff away.

But then I look at Caroline who is just so happy to be her.

She gives and receives love like it was a free-flowing fountain.

When she needs to be held she climbs right up in your arms with a nary a thought that she would be refused and when she wants to run free she does so with complete faith that we will pull her right out of any trouble she gets herself into. 

When she wakes up she cries out for whoever she thinks is going to come get her and she falls asleep without a care in the world because she knows someone else is awake if needed. 

Maybe that’s what He was thinking about. 

Random #3

I had a neat conversation with a friend from church who always calls me by name when he greets me. 

I do my usual lame “hi” as I rack my brain going through everything I know about him and his family and all the connections to try and get to the guy’s first name. 

I blame a fall on concrete as a child, but I struggle with people’s names.

I lack confidence that I will use the correct name and have been burned in previous attempts when the name that I knew I should use gets stuck in the vortex and out comes the wrong name. 

So embarrassing. 

But this time after he greeted me and I said…

gulp, hi…

I faced the elephant in the room and just told him that I recognize that he always greets me by name and that it means a lot to me and I am sorry I never reciprocate even though I know his name is…(give me minute as I think of his wife’s name, how his son married one of our daughter’s friends from high school and ah…finally… yes…there it is…his first name pulled out of the file of my brain)

He was kind and we had a good conversation about how he took to heart one time a quote about a person’s name and how it is a value of that person. 

I want to be better at this, but it also made me think differently about a song we sing in church. 

It’s an odd lyric and because it didn’t make sense to me so I didn’t ever sing it. 

One of the repeated verses says something about “You are worthy of Your name” and I couldn’t bring myself to sing it because it seemed kind of obtuse. 

I don’t like saying things to God that I don’t really understand and it felt kind of insulting to tell Him that we all decided He actually is worthy to be called God…or the Lamb of God…or whatever; but after my conversation with what’s-his-name (KIDDING!! I know it…I’m just being discreet here) I have begun to understand that Jesus’ name..the names for God…the titles given to Him…they declare His worth and that is what the song is saying. 

That all the names I use to call Him and call on Him, are full of unfathomable weight and glory and I am just making my own little feeble brain work to grasp how awesome He is. 

Ok…

That should be good for today. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Go out and be amazing for His glory and I will see you tomorrow <3

On Sunday night Russ and I attended the Mercy Me concert. It was so good and I have a zillion thoughts swirling around in my head so just sharing a few. 

First, the opening musicians were a guy named Micah Taylor who I thought I had never heard of until he sang a few of his songs and I was like….yeah…I know who you are. 

He was funny and talented and humble and it could have been a show right there and we would have been content. Turns out he is from Austin which just made me love him even more. 

Next was Crowder. 

I did know who he is and I know a few of his songs but I was unprepared for how fun and delightful he would be. 

If you are like me, and I pray for your sake you are not, when I hear a singer I tend to develop a mental image of him or her in my head. Sometimes I am spot on and sometimes I am like….wwwwwhhhhhhaaaaatttttttt????

My first visual of Crowder a few years ago was like, uh no. I don’t know who this guy is, but I am looking for the musician named David Crowder. 

But yes…the guy who looks like a cousin to the Duck Dynasty folks. 

That’s really him. 

And if you are like me, and again…my prayers abound that you are not….I tend to ascribe a personality to a visual. 

And I was not really sure what personality to ascribe to the visual of David Crowder, but after literally worshiping with him, his band and half of the arena in Champaign for over an hour…he has found a place in my heart amongst the good ones. 

He is so funny, so unassuming and so crazy talented. Again…if that had been all there was to the concert, it would have been enough. 

Then Mercy Me came out and at first I was not sure. 

They had an impressive graphic deal going behind them as they went through about three of their well known songs. The lighting was extremely cool…I know that is a lame description but the only way I can express it. 

And after the lack of bells and whistles that the first two sets had involved, I was cynical. 

I don’t need slick Christianity and I don’t like feeling manipulated into worship. 

But after their first few songs, all the hype kind of melted away. 

Through conversation and acoustic sets and more of the background creativity and such, it was again more like a worship service than a concert. 

I always wonder if people who are on a stage for a living as actors, singers, dancers, and even Christian artists..people who do the same thing over and over lose their enthusiam. 

I think about when soloists or bands have a hit and so every single concert and show for the rest of their career they are expected to sing that same song in the same way the audience loves. Do they get sick and tired of doing it? Do they lose their love of the calling?

And I have two thoughts on that:

One is, we all face that challenge on our own small stages. Every single day we get up and do the thing we were called to do. 

Every single day, you have to work up the passion and compassion to do your job – to hang in there.

Even when your days are playing on a loop, you have to show up and give it your all and find the reason why you do deep down in your soul and then pour out. 

You have to consistently show up and be the person who matters to the people in your realm of influence.

So good on you there, fellow traveler. 

Second thought: Bart Willard, lead singer for Mercy Me, answered my question near the end of the concert. 

I had forgotten one of my favorite songs was written by him. 

He started talking about his days when he doesn’t “feel” like all the things he believes and declares to large audiences and across the airwaves. 

Days when he can’t see God working and he doesn’t have that joy down in his heart and it seems like God has abandoned him. 

The song he wrote in those times expresses how he can feel like a fake standing up on a stage declaring God’s goodness…

The words echo something we all, even the people whose stories are strung throughout Scripture struggled with….David, Joseph, Ruth, Esther, the three men in the furnace….so many….

I know you’re able and I know you can, save through the fire with your mighty hand….but even if you don’t….

“Even If” by Bart Millard

That’s what faith is. 

Whether you are on a tour bus going from city to city…or walking into a corporate office each morning….standing in front of a classroom of kids…or folding the first of ten loads of laundry for the day…prepping someone for surgery…or sitting by the bedside of a love one…

even if He doesn’t appear to have shown up….

our hope is in Him and we will not be disappointed.