The Village...

What a blast the past month has been for Joanna and I! Most of it has been centered around the Razorbacks, which is both good and bad (thanks to them losing!!), we spent the first weekend of October going to the new Cowboys stadium with my great friend Brian Robinette (see previous post), the next weekend was in Fayetteville at the Auburn game with BOTH the Robinette's, the Qualls', Doug and a whole host of great friends. That was followed by a weekend in The Woodlands baby sitting Jo's little brother and sister and having a blast messing with the Gator fans of that household!

While all that was fun, it was a fresh reminder of how much I miss my friends! Wouldn't it be great if we could start a community all on our own...much like the move The Village (minus all the creepy stuff of course). Think about it, wouldn't it be great if you could hand pick all your favorite people to live in the same community with you. Work together, raise kids together, play and laugh and cry together. Not like a wierd David Koresh compound, simply our own little town. We could call it Friendsville or You're Not Allowed In Town. It would no doubt anger some who would be left on the outside looking in...they would just have to get over it!

I'm pretty sure that's what the Garden of Eden was supposed to be. Lots of people enjoying life free from outside harm and stress. Too bad sin had to screw it up for the rest of us...good one Adam and Eve. And I'm pretty sure that's what Heaven will be like too...lots of great people, and none of the riff raff we have to deal with here :).

So, all that to say, way to go October '09! Thanks for reminding me that God is good....he has blessed us with friends and family that truly do love us. He has promised us a great place to live when we get home someday...and sealed us with the great Holy Spirit guarantees our deposit into our home. Thanks for reminding me that this isn't my home, not Texas, not Fort Worth...I'm the actually the riff raff. I'm ok with that!

A birds eye view...

We decided, kind of at the last minute, to go to the Arkansas vs. Texas A & M game this past weekend at the new Cowboys Stadium, aka "Jerry's World." What an unbelievable place to watch a game. At first we weren't going, but Brian Robinette was coming in for the game so we decided to go as well. Good choice. It really is a spectacle that all sports fans should see.....but this post isn't about the stadium so I digress.

We DID NOT have good seats to this game, they were way too expensive for us! In fact, we were so high my nose is still bleeding! Sitting that high gave an interesting perspective to the game though. What I began to notice (as I should...I did play pee wee and jr high football) was from our birds eye view we could see everything develop. We could see what the defense was going to do, we could see when a receiver came open, we could see when a big hit was coming. It was actually really cool. Is that the way God sees us? I mean, He's up in Heaven right? Does He look down on us the way I was looking down on the Hogs? I don't think so...what do you think?

Here's what I wished were true, I wish we could see our lives the way I was watching the game. Think about it, if we could see what was coming, just how the enemy was going to attack us the same way a defense attacks a quarterback, wouldn't it make life a little easier? It seems like it would help us all avoid some mistakes, we could gameplan life a little easier. Unfortunately, we can't do that. We have to take a play at a time, one step at a time. So what do we do? We cling to truth, we cling to the Bible, to prayer, to trusted family and friends to help us avoid the defense and succeed in life.

So maybe we don't have the advantage of seeing our world and our lives from a birds eye view, but we do have the advantages of the things I just mentioned. We can pray, we can lean on scripture, we can open up to people we love who can help us move forward. My prayer for you all (and myself) is that we do just that. And when you do get the chance to step back for an aerial view, a snap shot of life...look for the good, look for the successes, look for ways to grow from the past. I love you all....