February 7 – “that one old couple”

Yesterday was one of those plodding days where I spent the great majority of it sitting at my computer, plunking letter after letter, word after word, sentence after sentence, thought after thought.  And what evidence is there to show that my efforts were worth the time and thought (and keystrokes)?  Well, here’s the thing.  It’s just that the tasks I was working on were not really things that had measurable response generators.  Some things you do give you immediate feedback.  You know, like if you poke at an alligator long enough he will most likely try to eat you.  This stuff was just not that dramatic. 

One thing I worked on was a response to some questions that came up in a meeting I went to.  That response ultimately amounted to a mini-treatise on the place of tithing and offerings in the church today.  Not exactly my favorite research topic of the decade.  But an important one, I guess, as topics related to discipleship go.  I’ll eventually be able to use it in a teaching, but for the time being I hope it helps answer some questions for one person.  The other project amounted to a bit of consulting for a church up in New Jersey.  Well, not exactly for the church.  One of the members there is a good friend, and he asked for my input on a presentation they have put together to be used as an introduction to the church for people who might be interested in checking them out.  That’s what took up most of the time.  I have always loved doing stuff like that.  I know I never get to see any of the benefits of my efforts, but it seems like a good use of energy to help out churches that may not have the benefit of high dollar consultant firms.  I have seriously thought about going into that sort of thing full-time, but then I guess I would be becoming one of those high-dollar consultant firms.  Sigh.  Still … it has an appeal.  Maybe in a few years …

I greatly prefer days like Wednesday.  That was the day I went with Cailyn to a play at the Grand.  Hanging out with about a thousand 4 and 5 year-olds was right up my alley.  Then I met Chris for lunch.  Yep.  Just me and Chris.  Jennifer came over to stay with Mom.  It was Chris’ turn to pick where we ate, so we ended up at Salsa’s.  I knew it would be Mexican food.  Just didn’t know where.  After lunch we went to the local furniture store to see if they had a cabinet for Chris’ Precious Moments collection.  It has been in storage since Hurricane Ike, and she hasn’t been able to find just the right one she wants.  I may have to ask one of the fire fighters to build her one.  Tanya does incredible work with wood.  Not sure how much she would charge, but I’d sure like to see Chris get exactly what she wants.  From there we drove around the Strand area to see if there were any antique stores that might have something.  Obviously we didn’t connect there, so we stopped by the fire department admin offices.  I wanted to introduce Chris to the administrative assistant, Trish.  No one was around the office, though, so we did the next best thing.  Target run.  Got some honey covered cashews and a booster seat for the car.  Aren’t we just the best grandparents ever? 

And that was about the essence of our special day together.  Lunch, a walk, a ride, and trip to Target.  All with the love of my life.  Doesn’t get any better than that.  So does that make us officially … “that one old couple”?

Psalms 36:5 says, “Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.”

Father, thank you for allowing us to experience a taste of your love through the relationships we have here that are so special.  Amen.