one hell of a weekend

so this morning i met my old friend for coffee.

we chatted things up quite a bit then bam! bombs were dropping out of the sky, people were running for cover, babies were screaming, sirens were going off, buildings collapsing all around, cars crashing, there was smoke, distant gunfire gaining in intensity and closeness... the whole world was ending.

i didn't didn't flinch.

i didn't raise an eyebrow... nor blink... nor even shift in my seat.

i just sat there and took it all in.

very quickly the conversation got into deep theology, philosophy, and deciphering the issues entangled within messages and messages entangled within issues and so on.

a lot was running through my mind at this point.

-wow.

-it's no big deal; it's just life.

-scripture.

-the desire to reach across the table slap my friend across the face.

-hey, lady across the room- please get control of your noisy kids, it's early on a sunday morning and i haven't been to church yet so i'm not as full of grace as i should be (actually i was overflowing with grace this morning but her kids were gonna use it all up and the day had just begun. also worthy of note: never made it to church -- more on that later).

-the desire to reach across the table and hold my friend's hand, stair into my friends eyes and say "cool."

-thanks for including me in this.

-thanks for being vulnerable.

-i'm going to respect you now in our conversation by engaging deeply with well-meaning questioning and thought provoking comments and ideas.

-grace is an amazing thing.

-don't say something stupid.

-God loves you so much.

and other things that were flying by faster than my ADD mind could cling to.

so we talked and discussed and argued and defended and understood and rebutted and extended grace and came to a general understanding that we have our beliefs, what we think is right, what we think is wrong, questions that we can answer, questions that we can't, and that that was definitely stacie orrico sitting a table away totally pretending to write a new song in her notebook while totally listening to our conversation, and other things. (hey stacie, thanks for reading my blog. call me sometime. if you don't have my number (which would be really weird) ask your dad. he totally knows who i am. p.s. hope the new song about that super-hot-and-super-wise mystery boy in the coffee shop that you're totally in love with hits #1 on the charts. i can hear it now: "oh my that super-hot-and-super-wise mystery boy/such a mystery/ who is that super-hot, super-hot (backing vocal echo), and super-wise, super-wise, mystery boy?/ he was so hot and so wise/ i am so in love/ oh baby!" pure gold baby, pure gold. seriously, call me.)

as we wrestled through definitions and core issues and how language is at best faulty when trying to communicate (think about it.

you know how you want to say something but you can't quite think of the right word to describe it?).

that and not knowing how to read can really get in the way of having a decent conversation.

but i digress...

almost four hours later i realized that i had to get to work and my friend had to go meet with other friends and consume mid-day sustenance.

i've been thinking about our conversation all day.

while it was filled with controversy wrapped around a very delicate and personal issue with a slice of lime, words not said, and with a side of stacie orrico (nice, way to get that in there one more time;-) (thanks ;-) ;-), i felt alright walking away and heading off to work because i know my friend and i are going to worship the LORD ALMIGHTY when all is said and done. regardless of our stances on the issues at hand.

while we may have disagreed here and there.

whether or not what i said today had any impact on my friend's heart to the affect that my friend changes stance, we will not be divided over or because of issues such as the one discussed.

Jesus was all about loving regardless of position, color, or well-being.

i love my friend.

my friend loves me.

we love Jesus.

Jesus loves us.

so it's all good baby.

-k