I’m getting the hang of town. “Big girl,” I mentally patted myself on the back, in true Papa fashion, after successfully finding an out of the way shop he’d sent me to. The shopping, I have down almost to an art—Lowe’s first (I don’t care for Lowe’s), Wal-Mart next (I despise Stuff-mart), then the little things (I wish little errands would disappear off the face of the earth). My enthusiasm is nearly painful.
Amber and I met for breakfast (if you can call it breakfast at 10 AM) at the Waffle House for our weekly “Double A” meeting. She was toting her own Bible, which is a small, but sure step. The Lord is working, I do believe. We read through John 3-4, which is a pretty tough read, and had some good discussion. Nicodemus and the woman at the well both asked good questions—a sure sign of a tender heart. Amber asks good questions, too, so I know she’s paying attention. God’s word is faithful, even in small doses. It will work in all of us.
Ross Pendergraft, the friendly campus library, was packed with sleepy crammers. I walked past Nathan just in time to see him jerk his head back up from a doze and grin sheepishly at me. Finals week is certainly one part of college I don’t envy.
Kathryn swiped me in for lunch with her and April, and various and diverse other friends drifted in and out, until I’d seen nearly all of the “regulars”—Jacinda, Shoko, Zach, Oly, Taylor, Matt and Lauryn. When Zach asked how I was doing, I couldn’t resist a “Worse, thank you.” Gasps and giggles followed with the accusation that Oly was rubbing off on me, much to his obvious delight. Lauryn was the last to arrive. When she called me back and found out that I was already in the Caf, her voice dripped with disappointment—until I promised to wait for her. It’s always a lively crew. Zach threw food at everyone. I wish I could claim this was something new and exciting.
It seems I always happen to be on hand to accompany Lauryn on her recording excursions at Taylor's. We goof beyond belief. Lauryn and I, that is. I crack lame jokes, which she kindly laughs at, she pokes fun at Taylor, and he politely puts up with our silliness. The frightening thing is when he’s engrossed in mixing, headphones on and we start chatting away about cultural differences between here and home. Suddenly he turns around and says, “What do you mean when you say mush-mouth? Like me?” His ears are amazing. Thankfully, neither of us had divulged anything embarrassing. Lauryn discovered the Facebook group I made in protest of her proposed haircut: “Goldie should never sever her locks”. She's considering joining.
Emily’s keychain turned out a success. “Is it me?” she asked, and, honestly, it does bear a striking resemblance—at least in the fact that it has lots of curly hair.
Choices, the crisis pregnancy clinic, claimed my attention an hour early and I arrived only to discover that Sherry had neglected to tell me they were closed on Wednesday. I called and talked to her anyway, and found out some more details. They’ve been praying for another person to pair up with a girl named Meagan in the Abstinence program they take to public schools, and I do believe she thinks I’m the one. I’m afraid I might be. Here’s the glitch. Honestly, truly and from my inner heart, I don’t want to do it. My mind rebels against the thought of going anywhere near a public school—as if the building itself could defile me. And talk about abstinence? Sure, I advocate abstinence, but, um, you want me to talk about it? Ick. I’m such a prude. The whole concept is a world beyond my comfort zone. And I’ve never really had to decide to do something that I thought I should do that I didn’t want to do. As if that makes any sense. But most emotional topics don’t.
This dry run proved a good result—I slipped back into Summit on the heels of a kind young man, took the elevator back up to the fifth floor and walked back into the girl’s room for a splendid surprise. Or something. They couldn’t have been too excited to see me, since they all dispersed a short time later and left April and me alone—perfect. Her plan? “Let’s pray.” First, of course, we shared about the issues eating each of us, then we joined hands and took our burdens to the Lord. Praying with April is like taking my sister by the hand and running into the lap of my Heavenly Father, who alone could give such amazing gifts and unite such different people.
Lord, Thy wisdom is supreme
When Thou took people so extreme
And melded them into one body,
Thou made something called and holy.
By Thy gift of unity
Will all men know we’re part of Thee:
The body of Thy precious Son,
And us in Thee, Thou three-in-one.
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