Went to Texas with sister, mom and niece
to visit brother and family and see another
niece get baptized and to observe my
brother and family in their new surroundings
and to laugh with and at his children,
especially the younger two. It was so much
fun. So much that going back to my life was
a bit depressing.

Last Saturday night I played my first gig in
Lawrence. Want to know the sad truth?
My audience for the bulk of the two hour
block consisted of two old men who kept
talking to me in between songs about
unrelated topics, and one of them asked me
if he could play on my keyboard, so I let him,
and that was fine, but I was kind of hoping
there would be a few more people - maybe
a few younger ones - to share the experience
with.

Lessons learned: perform more around the 9-10
hour because that is when people seem to come
out on Saturday nights, and e-mail friends about
it more than a day before so you have a support
group.

I'm still glad I did it, though. Good times. I got
a free drink and black bean burger, so why complain?
And Naomi (darling girl) did show up at the end of
the set and I played her a love song. It was an
experience that will stay with me, and most likely
make me laugh in the future.

Confessions:
It was a chemically imbalanced weekend, meaning that I
just felt wrong inside for a large part of it. I don't know
what these feelings stem from exactly, but all of a sudden
tonight, having returned from Bible study, I feel much
better.

I kind of spent $150 on clothes from TJ Max on Sunday.
I was a bit depressed, and I don't know how much that
influenced my spending, but I'm taking a few things
back tomorrow. oops. (But I really did need the
athletic pants, and the cozy fleece, and the pants, and..
yikes) Also went to Wal-Mart and talked to some friends
for a while. It was nice. Poor Yan I found out used to live
in the apartment complex that burned down, so her life
has been crazy lately. She apologized for loosing my
number and not calling, but wow, I'm just glad she's alive.
Three people died in that fire. Emily's pregnancy is coming
along fine, though she is highly emotional sometimes
(we bonded over that topic), and Leroy and Casey are still
cute and fun, and Mark is sarcastic.

I close with some Wetmore quotes that I've lately revisited.

"The Priest is not a Priest for his sake, but for the sinner's
sake. God transferred the holy place from the temple to us
as a church body. Christ dwells in us (Col. 1:27). The
presence of God dwells in us.

We are not Priests so that we can approach God but so that
the world can approach God. How are we Priests? The
sacrifice we offer is Christ and we sacrifice ourselves to
show others what Christ's love looks like. It's by our love
that people see Christ.

No longer do we picture Christ through rituals, but through
offering our bodies as living sacrifices (Rom. 12). Now the
sacrifice is not what we do Sunday morning (the symbols,
rituals, etc.) but how we give up our lives every day. We
are a living temple. it is me giving my life for my neighbor,
blessing those who curse me, etc., in order that we might
show them Christ and what He has done.

This relates to prayer too. We don't pray to be Spiritual but
because God changes peoples' lives through our prayers.
God doesn't judge Spirituality by how much you pray but
by how much you love - are you in Christ? The "disciplines"
of the Christian life have to start with love."

Goodbye, friend. And hey, thanks for reading.