My day off

Today was Thursday...my day off. I didn't set an alarm and woke up when I felt like it. I had a leisurely breakfast and watched some people win stuff on The Price is Right. A friend of mine in college, named Sara Stienecker, just loved game shows because they were all about people winning stuff and being happy. She took such pleasure in watching other people be happy...kind of like Stargirl, the main character of a book by the same name. Stargirl is written as a truly selfless person who is punished by her high school classmates who just can't figure her out. Tonight, at Vanderbilt Presbyterian Student Fellowship worship, Jennifer Fouse talked about being so full of the spirit that we make other people nervous...that we make people wonder if we've been drinking. I thought of Stargirl...oh, that everyone was more like Stargirl. In our prayer circle at the end of worship, people shared some really deep joys and some really deep hurts. As I stood there listening to these college student sharing all that they would lay at the feet of a loving God who sends a powerful Spirit, I wondered if I would have been as willing to share such things when I was in college...I wouldn't have. What a place of privilege to be in the midst of that circle and be asked to clear my throat and say, "Ahem, God, did you hear that? What's your plan for that? What's my role in that? Make things better, God. Bring them your comfort, God. Bring them your peace. Bring them your grace. " Yeah, to be entrusted with someone's deep pain and deep joy, that's...well, that's...that's something amazing and powerful and, dare I say it, spiritual. Oh, that we would all be willing to share our brokenness in our times of need and that the community of believers might hold the broken as God does God's amazing work. So, yeah, it was a good Thursday. Thanks be to God.