Full Circle--Day 163/Day 12/Day 23/Day 1

I got up early enough to get the kids ready and head off to the Adult Sunday School. I dressed Noah warmly and then we had a bowl of Fruity Pebbles together. He had seconds. Colton and Gabrielle were ready to go as were there friends they were bringing (Ashleigh and R.J.). Kim was up by then, I gave her a kiss, and left.

We went over Ephesians 1:3-8 after first going over several questions on what it meant to be and act like a Christian. We broke down those verses rather than just read them and we could really see how much God loves us, chose us, predestined our lives, and "freely bestowed" his glory on us. He asked that we write this section down and read it several times a day and also read the whole book of Ephesians. I'm looking forward to doing so.

I'm glad my attitude has changed in that before I was waiting for this more religious part of my life to end for one reason or another. I am confident now that it won't. God has my heart and is not letting go.

Once Kim got there, I took Noah to the nursery. As I was leaving, they mentioned they were going to go ask Pastor Don to announce that they needed another helper. I volunteered Kim and she was glad to help. The sermon was about the qualities of a good wife and of a good husband. Colton and R.J. stayed with me and since they usually do not, and did not have a bible they grabbed one from under the chairs and read along with us. Before that, they both sang with us with Colton mentioning before the first song that it was one of his favorites. He said the same thing about one of the next ones as well. The week before, he had asked us to turn up the radio when Come, Now is the Time to Worship came on the radio. He said this was one of his favorite songs even before he knew what it meant to be a Christian. That was pretty cool.

I remember feeling incredibly uncomfortable when at other churches when we were asked to turn and greet our neighbors. I've never been the social type, so without knowing the Lord, I felt I was just shaking some strangers' hands. We were asked to do so early in the service and I shook the person's hand next to me (Lord, will I ever remember people's names after they introduce themselves?), Scott, Mary and Allison's hands, a man two rows in front of me (he seems like the type that likes to laugh often), the woman next to me a few people in the row behind me and I shook Jenni's hand who was reaching across the row behind me to shake my hand. I know her from the bible study class and really enjoy what she has to say during the class. I also see her during Awana's once in a while. It came across as a very sweet thing to do as she stretched across the row to greet me. She is really a very sweet woman.

After shaking all those hands, I realized I had come full circle. Rather than shaking a couple hands of the people next to me in my row, I had gone in a full circle to greet every one and even went outside my immediate circle. This felt like a metaphor for my religious life. Adam had used a circle as a example of our attention to God in our life. Some are turned 180 degrees from Him while others are about 120 degrees from him. That was probably me a few months ago. Now, I agree with his assessment. I am right there with him...for a while. I still waver about 30 degrees from Him before coming back to Him throughout the day. This may happen when I'm reading the bible, talking to the kids, doing something with the church or while I'm lost in thought. I would like it if I never wavered from Him. I'd like it if I was right at 0 degrees ALL THE TIME. This takes great fortitude and dedication after not knowing Him for so long. It seems like it should be really easy. Maybe it is.

I also felt like I was at the center of all this friendliness. Sort of like making a circle with a compass, there has to be a stationary point in the middle to make it perfectly round. This was a moment I had to look at through God's eyes. He would not see me at the center. He would see a whole church full of friendliness and greetings. Even if me being in the center was important at all, it would not be about me: it would be about the circle itself and the people reaching out to me. The main point should be God is at the center, not any of us. It was a pleasant internal message to remember.

Later on, Colton, R.J. and I played some football. R.J. is four years older than Colton, so he had an obvious height advantage. Colton got a few touchdowns against him, and would've had more if I threw a more accurate ball, but R.J. was obviously winning. I suggested Colton become all time Q.B. This worked out much better. I have a height advantage on R.J., but Colton was throwing some amazingly accurate passes. I think both R.J. and I both got touchdowns on every possession.

On one rather humorous play, R.J. had the ball behind our playset trying to figure out which way to run. Colton was on the other side of it ready to get him. I decided to flush him out by running at him from his right and making him go into the open field. It worked perfectly and Colton began chasing him. I did the same by jumping over the small, yellow slide coming off the playset, except my foot caught the top of it. Imagine tripping over something at full speed as you are jumping. You get pretty high in the air...and then you come straight down. It was like doing a belly flop on very solid ground. It hurt from my chest down to my knees. I must've been perfectly parallel to the ground. Fortunately, R.J. didn't get a touchdown. He and Colton were too busy rolling on the ground in laughter. I don't know if they saw it, or just heard the loud grunt as I hit the ground.

R.J. and I wouldn't let it go to a tie and were getting a t.d. every time, so we decided to make a rule that the next t.d. won, but we had to start from inside our end zones to make the field longer. On second down, I did not even turn towards the ball and just put my hands up. I got hit in the back with the ball as Colton tried to get it to R.J. I did the same the next play and I saw R.J.'s eyes look up towards the ball. I put my arms up and the ball sailed inches from the top of my head directly into R.J.'s hand on a full run. It was a very nice pass and a great way to end the game. I'm not sure what the score was, but we were exhausted, thirsty and one of us thought he had broken his sternum:).

I had worked on my homework throughout the day, and finally finished it before midnight. I had told Wendy I was mostly done with it earlier in the day, not realizing all that we had to do. I had finished the letter from God, but felt I had to make some more changes to make it a bit more personal. The scripture kung fu took quite a while, but I enjoyed it.

That is one word I'm writing very often: enjoy. I noticed the same about a different word a couple months ago: beautiful. Yes, I would say my life and attitude has changed and in a very good way. I enjoy all that is beautiful. God bless everyone. Praise Him.