The past five days have been...awesome, for lack of better words. The Cox's had a few family members come in for the week and they did a bunch of day trips together while I was at work. Lame.
There was one day trip, however, that I did not get to miss out on (thank you half day Thursdays!)...Palo Duro Canyon. Palo Duro is just outside of Amarillo, about a two hour drive from Lubbock. To start off our venture in the canyon, we went horseback riding (which left my inner thighs bruised for the next two days since it's only been eight or nine years that I've been on a horse), followed by a gourmet steak dinner just outside of the amphitheater (I ended up eating the chicken), and we finished off with seeing the play "Texas," right in the middle of the canyon. What we didn't know, until at the time, was that there would be a double finish to our outing...fireworks! Being that it was three days before July fourth, they (I don't really know who "they" are. The people running the show I suppose...) decided to display a special Fourth of July firework show after every performance that weekend, starting that night! What a treat. We got in at 1:30 that morning and I slept in til 10...which is really late for me (if I ever sleep in past nine, I feel like I'm wasting my life away).
The rest of the weekend was spent mainly at the house, just chilling. Us ladies, with a few other friends, got our nails done one day. My parentals and sister and brother came in for a few hours on Saturday and we ate at Buns Over Texas. Best cheese fries of my life. And you want to know what I did for my big Fourth of July extravaganza? Hot nothing...except for church, that is, which was actually at our youth center just down the street from the main campus. We had A LOT of rain last weekend from the hurricane. Lubbock is a flat and dry town. Put two and two together and what do you get?? A flood. The entire church parking lot was completely flooded, amongst other parts of town. You would have to use a canoe to get to the main entrance.
And today the offices were closed due to the holiday season. I got my oil changed this morning and afterwards went to go look at getting a new battery, but the battery place was closed, so I went about my business, planning to get my battery business done sometime this week when I have the time. Then I went out to lunch with a couple of friends...and my car died in the restaurant parking lot. How inconvenient! Stephen Cox came and rescued me and we're hoping the battery place will be open tomorrow morning on my way to work...that is if my car starts in the morning. Here's hopin!
But anyway (or as Charlie would say, "But on a serious note"), all that to say, the Cox family, among select staff members at Trinity Church, will be the reason it is going to be so hard for me to leave at the end of the Summer. And not just because we made day trips together or worked side by side in the office, but because I have established some life long friendships here.
In John Ortberg's The Me I Want to Be (I know. I've mentioned him several times in the past few posts. But I finished the book finally, so this is the last time I'll mention it...no promises), he writes a chapter on making life-giving relationships a top priority. I couldn't summarize this chapter into better words as he:
"Part of what it means to be made in God's image is our capacity for connectedness, because God created human beings and then said, 'It isn't good for man to be alone.'" We thrive off of people's love for us. We need love to live. There was a point in my life when I felt I had no true friends and I had this constant awareness that I was, not alone, but lonely. All the time. And it ate me up inside for eight years. That's a long time to experience loneliness. I understand that God is my best friend and He is all I truly need, but it takes the love of people to experience the love of God sometimes...a lot of the time actually.
But it's not just other people loving us that we need. We need to love other people, too, not only because it's a command from God, but because loving people gives us joy and value. Ortberg said, "When we work to truly notice someone else, love for them grows. When we work to truly observe another person, in that self-forgetfulness our own soul flourishes."
Our souls will flourish: they will be in a vigorous state, in their prime, at the height of excellence. They will prosper, grow luxuriantly, thrive in growth, as a plant. Now that is something to experience at the expense of love.
"I noticed my fellow blogger friends had some new posts, so I read those, again, hoping for something to spark. Nothing. Thanks for the inspiration guys."
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