Today I am Loving {188a}

When your mind has been on overload, and you need to wind down to sleep, but the novel feels too trivial in the wake of all you've seen and said and heard this week, there is nothing as appropriate as reading about...vegetables.

Today I am Loving {188}

When the days have been so crazy but the application ratings are due, you eat the dinner, tidy the  house, light the candles, curl up in the chair, and read.

Today I am Loving {187}

When you asked Him to rewrite all that you have been taught to believe and all that you have been taught to think, about Him and of His Kingdom Work, and then you watch Him, do it.

This Weekend I was Loving: Every 28 Hours Edition

Statistic: Every 28 Hours in America,

a black person is killed by someone in power.

 Audience member: I feel shook. Grief. Loss.

Black woman: I have felt like I am screaming at a wall. Today most of the faces on the stage are of privilege. I feel like people are fighting with me for the first time in 24 years.

Black man: As a black man, we just want freedom. I'm holding everyone accountable. It's going to take everybody. That's when we can talk about freedom, because we are not free.

 Black man: I feel heard. I live this every day. I'm scared every day. Today I feel like I'm not just screaming it by myself in my room at night.

Black man: It's my mom. Every time I leave the house she says "be safe." I was fine, but I don't want to see my mom like that.

 Black woman: Feeling emotion is great, but what's next? Get educated and go out. We need you to be a part of the change.

Black woman: A lot of personal stories were told, and I felt that. But what happens after this moment?

 White man: I was laying here on this ground, looking at this stone floor. I was looking back at all the complacency in my life. I'm not going to allow myself to be complacent anymore.

 Black man: I'm numb. This has happened so many times. Don't even think anymore. Can't feel anymore. This was therapeutic: Just for a moment let your guard down, and feel for the people who look like you.

 Black woman: You used your bodies, you used your minds, 

you used your hearts.

Black man: In order to understand black lives matter, you need to understand black people. 

 Black man: Be that person who says "it's not ok."

White man: I needed vocabulary. You gave me the tools. Thank you.

Reality: "Every 28 Hours in America,

we lose a piece of our soul."

Today I am Loving {186c}

When the students whom you'd never met before these marathon days come to hug you in the wake of all that just occurred, and you see their eyes, their real and human and heart-felt eyes looking into yours, and the ones for whom this has never been their burden tell you how their thinking has changed and how they commit to its needing to still, and the ones for whom the burden daily is say: I. Feel. Heard.

Today I am Loving {186b}

When the show comes to an end but the song is still singing,

and the audience joins the cast on the stage, 

and in the tears is so much healing.

Today I am Loving {186a}

When the run-through comes to an end and the tears are streaming down your face, and your friend sees and says "are you ok?" and your only response is "no I'm not ok," and that is entirely the point.

Today I am Loving {186}

When it's the day to break out the boots.

Today I am Loving {185}

When--true to form--you have somehow agreed to play a master class as well as speak on a panel on top of the fullest week of your semester, you go to bed late and get up early, you make a pot of coffee, and you pat yourself on the back for at least having the foresight to turn down the opera gig, the worship leading, and the trip to Germany,
when the people asked.

Today I am Loving {184a}

When you had the dreams that said "get ready" and you listened and looked and found a way, and then you see it, Purpose:

Today I am Loving {184}

 When your day starts so early, you can park on level two!

 and since it's gonna be a long one due to your next big event,

 you stop for the coffee before the all-day-training,

and take 13 minutes, to sit.