The Gated Community

Hey there, everyone...(yea right...ummmm....like ME!),
Here I am....it's been a few days, but I just don't have terribly much time to blog. But, I thought I'd write a quick one now before I go to bed.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to Houston to a really cool event; hence, the title "The Gated Community" because it happened to be in one of them! I chuckle myself everytime I say/write/think that, because there is a really funny little Veggie Tales Silly Song called "The Gated Community" (on the "Do the Moo-Shoo" DVD, for any Veggie fans!) and it cracks me up. Larry the Cucumber is a little boy with a ball that lands in a tree, and when his ball falls out of the tree, it lands in "The Gated Community" where it is "free of debris" and the little wealthy-golf-playing Veggies live in their "Gated Unity." It's just funny! The Veggies in the gated community are all dressed up in golf gear and have their little (as a friend of mine put it the other day) "horseshoe head" baldness with the hair on the sides and the back and they are just too, too funny....while Little Larry the Cucumber sits and wants his ball. Anyhow....enough diversion for now:

The event I got to go to was "An Evening with Dr. Chap Clark" who is a professor of Youth, Family, and Culture at Fuller Seminary, which is where I am working (very, very slowly mind you...but still working nontheless) on my Masters. It was at the Royal Oaks Country Club in Houston...like really--RIGHT IN Houston. It was a pretty fancy schmancy affair with beautiful food and tables and lots of people dressed up pretty cool and just a super nice place this was. Of course, I had lots of trouble finding just the right gate to actually get into the gated community, but once I finally found it, was quite impressed with the inside. It was truly cool. I saw a sign on the way in that said homes were from the 400,000's to over 3-million...which for our real estate market, is super pricey!! Anyhow, I met some really very, very nice people--some who actually live in the Gated Community! And though I felt very out of my element, it was still a really neat thing to go to. It wasn't what I thought it would be--a night about understanding the kids I minister to more; it was more of a rah-rah event for Fuller in Houston, but that's okay....it was exciting to feel like you are a part of something like that, so it was all good. Dr. Clark talked about John 4 and the Woman at the Well. He talked about how Jesus honored the woman...somehow, he honored her enough that she was willing to tell everyone all about him. It was a familiar passage, but he brought out some things I really hadn't thought about before, which is always refreshing...and as out of sorts as I was in that beautiful room with all the beautiful people and all--it is Christ Who died for each of us, and that lives for and within each of us. Thanks be to God for loving us, no matter who we are, and making us all the recipients of the greatest inheritance ever! What a cool thing! He honors us...and what a challenge that we would honor others in order to bring them to know Him.

In other news....well, there's lots of other stuff, but since I have to work at 6 am, I'll keep it brief. The weight is holding steady. Of course, that could have something to do with my insatiability for chocolate right now! Don't know what the deal is, and I haven't gone crazy, but I do need to reign myself in a bit. I did a pilates class at the gym today. That was cool...well, sort of! It's really not for fat people, I've decided! The instructor kept talking about "imagine you have a beach ball" like right in your belly area....ummm, excuse me....I don't have to imagine! There's a whole lot of me right there in the way of trying to do those crazy contortions she had us doing! I have to giggle when I do some of that stuff at how ridiculous this fat girl looks doing them! But, the instructor came up and talked to me some after the class and told me how impressed she was with how strong I am, because I was able to do a lot of stuff that people aren't normally able to do at their first class. That made me feel good. After that, I did 20 minutes on the elliptical, so it was a good workout day.

I work tomorrow the day shift and then I need to work on my sermon for next Sunday the 20th. I'm excited to get to preach....challenged, but that's part of the excitement. I better get some sleep now. Just wanted to catch up some! Gonna lay down my head in my non-gated community home now! Heehee!