It was like any other lazy Saturday morning.
Looking forward to the ‘paper’ and a steaming mug of Starbucks best. Shuffled toward the kitchen, felt my way to the coffee pot ... not a bean to be found!!!
Now mind you, I kinda knew there wasn’t. I mean, I knew 3 days ago the level of beans in the bag was gettin’ low …. But due to being too
lazy busy, I had procrastinated about running to the store yet once more. This, my friends, was how I ended up with no coffee.
A sad state of affairs ….. with no answer but to GET DRESSED, hop in the car and race down to the Starbucks. Not just ANY Starbucks. The one with the DRIVE THRU. This was important, as I was in no mood to dilly-dally getting my CUTE clothes on, not to mention makeup or even throw a ball cap on my bed-head hair! No worries --- I know absolutely NO ONE in this town.
In the last week I have thought a lot about how weird it feels to live in a place where NO ONE knows you --- other than that handsome guy I live with. It takes some getting used to (the not knowing any one …. not the living with that handsome guy!) We lived in our last town for 25 years. We raised our kids there – built our business there – made life-long friends there. In moving, we left all that – along with the ease and confidence of living that comes with knowing and being known in a small town. This town is much larger, and while we anticipate making new friends, our experience here will be very different. It’s an adventure – one that has ended up looking quite a bit different than what we’d anticipated.
Back to Starbucks………
I drove there
like a caffeine-deprived wild woman …. Only to find that about 500 OTHER people were in line in front of me. The parking lot was packed, so needless to say, the store was packed. Ugh. All for the want of some beans.
Headed over to the NEXT Starbucks --- How lucky are WE!!!?? TWO Starbucks within a mile of our house. I guess you can call that lucky…… if you want to. This little stop required me to actually commit to getting OUT of my car and going INTO the store and standing in line. It’s OK, nobody knows me, right?
Now I have to mention one other thing. We, (that’s me &
Handsome Guy) have been tossing around the idea of renting a room in our house. Not to just any ole’ body tho. We live less than 2 miles from the Calvary Chapel Bible College, and while the school provides housing for single students, if you’re married -- you’re on your own. Our kids had rented a room to a lovely young couple just last year --- it was a great experience for all of them, so we had considered doing the same – to the point where I actually gave the school all our info, put our names on a list (NO – NOT like at the Post Office!)….. and had even been contacted by a young couple – but they had a change of plans and ended up moving to another state…… No other ‘takers’ since then and given that we’ve been a little busy (no….
really!) with getting settled down here, we had put that idea on the back-burner. But the last few days I pulled that idea out & dusted it off ….. asking the Lord for direction….should I contact the college again?..... just show me Your way.
Back to my coffee - hopefully it’s still hot.
Of course, there was a very fashionably dressed, attractive young couple behind me in line. (Did I mention they were both dressed cute and she had make-up on? …. AND her hair was done.) You know those conversations that you can’t HELP but over-hear? It was the high-points that got me. These:
“coming back home, everything is so much easier – you know everyone,
you understand the culture” ( um…. Didn’t I just talk about that! )
“was in Australia” ( hey --- I lived in Australia once! )
“prayed about where I might go next” ( yep – done that too! )
Interesting that the VERY issue I’d been thinking about was the first thing out of his mouth.
You know me ….. never met a stranger. There’s something that compels me to jump into conversations when there’s a shared connection……… but this time, I had to choose: Risk a ‘failed’ first impression (sans makeup, and no cute shoes) in order to connect ……. or take my coffee and go home.
Handsome Guy likes to share this analogy: God can’t steer a parked car. Getting direction from God in our lives requires us to put our ‘car’ in drive, step on the gas….. and take our hands off the wheel --- THEN He has something to work with. I chose to put my vehicle in gear…. And put the pedal to the metal.
Her name is Jenn. We exchanged business cards, and when she replied that she attends a Calvary Chapel here in town, I casually mentioned being familiar with the college and the whole “ room thing”. Her immediate response was to tell me that her mom, a real estate agent, had been tasked with finding a rental for an out-of-state, young married couple, who would be attending the college this fall.
Of course!
Remember the parked car? Well, this car is moving forward – my hands are off the wheel – but I’m confident that regardless of which direction we go, the Driver has a great destination in mind.
