Lent 42

I mentioned that for the past couple of days, my mom has been here visiting. She got in on Saturday, and she headed back to New York today. It was really great to have her here with me over this stressful weekend, and even though I had her here as company, I was able to get all my work done that I had to get done. I have to admit, it's rough being so far from home (I have no idea how my West Coast friends do it), but I'm so glad that both my parents are still close enough that they can drive down and visit me with relative ease and without much in the way of planning (this visit was planned about a week and a half ago). It definitely gives me comfort. 

Today, I saw God in my mom's visit. 

Lent 41

Do not think that I have forgotten about today's God sighting.  As a matter of fact, I've known what my God sighting for today would be for quite some time.  However, most of the efforts of this day have been spent reading and preparing to write a paper for Church History that is due tomorrow (Tuesday...because I still haven't learned my lessons vis a vis procrastination).  That said, the paper gives me no real concern.  I'm sure that I will have written it by the time that it is due.  Alas, this does not pertain to my God sighting for the day.

My grandmother on my mother's side was born and raised in a small town in Pennsylvania called Waynesboro that falls on the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland.  Because of this, my mother—even though she herself was born and raised in Michigan—would spend many summers at her grandmother's house in Waynesboro.  During her time there, she made one particular friend who she managed to keep in contact with throughout her adult life.  In fact, I have vague, yet fond, memories of driving down to Waynesboro with my family to visit with this family friend.

However, as my life went on, they fell out of contact with each other (pretty much occasional phone calls and Christmas cards).  Yet when I first visited American University, my mom, knowing that Waynesboro is pretty much on the route to D.C., called her childhood friend up and my mom and I wound up getting invited to spend the night at her house on the way to D.C.  I don't think that I have driven with my mom between D.C. and Rochester once since then without at least meeting my mom's friend for dinner—although often staying the night at their (she has since gotten married) house.  Every time, I am absolutely floored by their hospitality.  Last night was an example of that.

Since my mom is in town, we made the drive up to Waynesboro yesterday after church to re-connect with them.  We had an fantastic afternoon of chit-chatting over wine and crackers and a delicious home-cooked steak dinner.  Of course, because they are so wonderful, we were able to spend the night there and return to the D.C. area this morning.  Choosing to attend American University for my undergraduate education has given me many blessings, and I consider being able to re-connect and visit with my mom's childhood friend and her family one of the greater blessings.

Today, I saw God in hospitality.

Lent 40

Well, I survived Palm Sunday. The hosannas have been sung. The branches have been waved. And now that the dust has settled and the sounds fade in the distance, we are left staring down the barrel of the cross.

However, there is still a long way for me to go between now and Good Friday. Classes to attend. A paper to write. Services to participate in. It's gonna be great. But in the meantime, one day down, five to go. 

Today, I saw God in a successful Palm Sunday. 

Lent 39

Holy Week starts tomorrow.  For those of you following along at home who do not hold leadership positions in a church, it's a pretty crazy week for us.  It's so crazy, that the seminary gives students Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of it off, in part so that we can appropriately observe the solemnity of Christ's Passion, but also because they know that many of us will have to be working a number of services and getting things prepared for the celebration of Easter next Sunday.  In addition, the services during Holy Week are often big productions.  Tomorrow—Palm Sunday—alone at the church I work at, both services will feature the really young (5-7) children's choir, the older (7-10) children's choir (featuring a few members of the church's bell choir), the youth (middle/high school) choir, and the adult choir.  Each of these groups are offering their own anthems, which means they have to be shoved into an already jam-packed order of worship.  They also all have to rehearse in the sanctuary (to get accustomed to the space), which adds to the logistical complications of the service.  In short, tomorrow morning is going to be stressful (and I'm wondering if it'll be better if my children's choir just doesn't perform on Palm Sunday next year).

But in spite of all that and all the stress that is about to fall on me in the next two weeks (Holy Week, two papers, a group debate, and concert week), today was rather calm.  I woke up around 9 and stayed in bed.  I did some reading (for one of my papers).  I took a nap.  I did some cleaning.  My mom got in.  I had an absolutely lovely dinner with her at P.F. Chang's.  It was all very peaceful, and kind of put my mind at ease for what's about to come tomorrow.  She'll be in town for the next couple of days, so that'll definitely help too.  Wish me luck on what's coming this week, and say a prayer for the pastors and church employees who are working so hard to ensure that Holy Week and Easter are meaningful for their congregants.

Today, I saw God in the calm before the storm.

Lent 38

I started writing the post for today, and then my Blogger app crashed and I lost it. Unfortunately for you, I'm not going to retype everything I said (which I thought was very good. Had clear flow and direction. Solid writing. Etc) because I'm typing on my iPhone, and typing for a long time on this keyboard gets annoying really quick. So here's the Tl;Dr version of what I had:

Weather in DC is fickle during spring. Deciding what to wear when I leave is hard because of that. I have to hope that what I'm wearing won't be too hot/too cold (I don't have very many layerable clothes). Today, what I happened to put on wound up being just right!

Today, I saw God in being sufficiently prepared for the elements. 

Lent 37

I guess that "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is not a song that's sufficiently loud enough to be my alarm. I say that, because I totally slept through it. Didn't hear it at all. I ended up waking up on my own at 8:25. 

Now, the last shuttle leaves my apartment at 8:55, and it normally takes me 45 min or so to get ready in the morning, so I was already behind the eight ball. And yet, I was able to get everything ready and make it down in time to catch the last shuttle. It's a good start to what I feel will be a good day. 

Today, I saw God in somehow managing to catch the last shuttle after sleeping through an alarm. 

Lent 36

Surprise reunions are the best reunions.

Today, one of the childhood friends of one of my friends from college (she's one of my bros) happened to be passing through DC on a choir tour.  Anyways, he (my friend's friend) has typically visited her (my friend—we're all clear on that now, right?) here in DC each year she has been here (typically over his spring break).  She would bring him around and introduce him to all her DC friends while visiting, which is how he came to be my friend.  Over the few times we've interacted, we've bonded over our love of musical theater, so that made befriending each other pretty easy.

Anyways, like I said, he happened to be in DC today on a choir tour, and he joined my friend at the church for the free dinner the church gives to those who go to bible study, so I got to see him!  It was completely unexpected and wonderful and we almost burst out into a rendition of "Agony!" from Into the Woods.  He was only in town this time for a short period of time, so I'm glad that I got to have seen him.

Today I saw God in a surprise reunion.