superfly

hear it in the stairwell:Ben Folds Five-The Ascent of Stan
I'm feeling ever-encouraged by my house full of small groupers:) Lynn never fails to bring an encouraging scripture at the right moment(she always makes me cry!), Erica's crazy socks and unbeatable cooking are smile-worthy, Sharon's faith in God's ability to provide is unbelieveable, Amy just couldn't stop smiling, Nelms finally got his small group snacks, Johnson's tax session tops H&R Block any day, Nielo takes greek to another level, Eric's love for all things Levi and law is so cute, Beth and Katie just make me happy, our attic has become a small group guys haven for camping chairs and rafter sitting, and Mattlevi shows up after Spanish class to amaze and encourage me with his incredible heart of service. And I get to spend time with all of these amazing people weekly! How lucky am I? Fourteen people showed up tonight, yeah, fourteen in our living room...cozy.

Ranting Ralph's ridiculously right-on ramblings

In small group tonight we were taking a few minutes to recap out thoughts on The Passion. Matt Nelms' input definitely challenged me. He was recounting the scene where Jesus was being whipped and He's chained to the post lying in a pool of His own blood. In the scene all Jesus can see is the guard who is holding the whip's feet. This sight takes Jesus into a flashback of Him washing the disciples' feet. Wow, how powerful is that. Even in His most torturous moments of pain Jesus had a heart of service and love. It really brings the verse "But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"(matt 5:43) to a completely different level.
Mattlevi brought up the scene where Jesus is hanging on the cross and the camera is focused in on just one of Jesus's eyes. His eye looks scared and is looking all around and very much resembles the eye of a scared animal as it's being held to be sacrificed. Wow, food for thought.
I love hearing all the little things that I may have missed or just made a bigger impression on other people.

On a lighter note, this morning I was driving to school after work and it had been raining for at least a few hours so there were considerable puddles on the roads. I'm driving alone in my coma-like morning state of exhaustion and racing thoughts and I notice a man walking on the sidewalk. It's an older black man and he's dressed fairly nicely wearing an old-school 70's ish leather jacket-very shaft- and he's got the very smooth walk going on. He obviously thinks he looks good. I then see a RTA barreling down the road, hitting every curbside puddle in its path. It's like a train wreck ready to happen and I can't do anything to stop it. It was almost slow motion as the the RTA passes the man and the largest tidal wave of muddle ghetto street water rises above the man's head. Every minute the poor old man spent that morning looking in the mirror, doing the Shooter McGavin guns and winking because he truly believe he was the finest thing to hit the streets of Dayton was washed away as he was absolutely drenched by the RTA puddle tsunami. I glance back in my rearview mirrow and the man is just standing there shaking his head. I'll admit that I laughed. Poor Shaft.

Can you dig it?