Salve Soror!

The message title, which translates to "hello sister" is the way my sister greets me whenever she calls on the phone. Imagine my surprise when she calls me tonight and tells me that she has decided to pledge my mother's sorority, Sigma Kappa. Now, I have tried my best to be an encourager in this whole process, from polling my friends to get them to write recs for her, to helping her choose appropriate attire. For years, I have endured my mother's disappointment that I didn't pledge her sorority or any sorority for that matter. Now my sister and my mother will have a common bond that I can't ever be a part of. I'm not too sure how I feel.... regret? jealousy? pride?

There are not many things in my 25 years of life that I would do differently if given the chance. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. It makes me laugh to look at how successful I have been considering that I sorely lack in self-confidence and interpersonal skills. I sat next to a colleague last night at the football game and was telling her about how my sister, although she puts on a damn good front, lacks a great deal of confidence. She replied that going away to school was not the way to build confidence. I laughed because it was only in moving away from what was familiar that I truly had to build confidence in myself. I had no other choice. So in that respect, I am happy for what my sister has done, and I wish her all of the best. When I graduated from high school I lacked so much confidence that I actively avoided anything that would call attention to myself. It wasn't until my junior year in college when a professor sat me down and said "AB, God still loves you when you screw up. If he didn't you'd be dead by now so quit limiting yourself." That rocked my world.

Tonight, Mrs. H. called and invited me to Hope for Saturday evening service. Now, I had never been to a church on Saturday evening..... I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had heard all sorts of things about Hope and the ministries it had from some parents at school who have tried to get me involved there (perhaps to get me married off?). It was very relaxed and quite interesting. The building reminded me of a mall, with wide hallways and brightly painted walls.

The service was what you would expect from a contemporary point of view, and the music was quite good, not too much like you were at a rock concert. The sermon was on listening to God's guidance... and two verses particularly stuck in my brain. The first one makes me laugh because of a joke the pastor made about reading the Bible. He said that he was preaching from Habakkuk tonight because he didn't want Habakkuk to greet him in heaven and ask the pastor how he liked his book without him having an answer. :)

"I will climb up into my watchtower now and wait to see what the Lord will say to me and how he will answer my [question]. Then the Lord said to me, 'Write my answer in large, clear letters so that a runner can read it and tell everyone else. But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.'"

-Habakkuk 2:1-2 (NLT)

In other words, God's timing is not always my timing, but if it is supposed to happen, it will happen. Hmm.. I can think of about 10 situations that applies to at this moment :)

Here is the other one:

"If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask Him, and He will gladly tell you, for He is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask Him... But when you ask Him, be sure that you really expect Him to tell you..."

- James 1:5-6 (LB)

The FF interpretation- Go ahead and ask God for help, just be ready that His answer might not be your answer.

That made me think of a conversation I had with a friend this week, who is struggling to define his relationship with God. We were discussing the belief of priesthood of the believer, particularly how Catholics believe that a prayer receives priority if one prays to a saint to intercede on your behalf. The analogy my friend gave went something like this:

Say you were a big political donor and you wanted to ask something of W. He is a busy man, and he might not have time to listen to your request and give it the time and attention it deserved. However, if you went and asked K. Rove to intercede on your behalf, your request would have more weight.

Good analogy, but I think my friend is missing the point. He is humanizing God by saying that there are limits on his time and attention. After all, doesn't the Bible say "Ask and it shall be given to you?"

I'm glad I went tonight and spent time with Mrs. H. She is a neat lady and a real encourager. Her family is as crazy as mine is. We went to Fuego's for dinner (I am surprised the people there don't know me by name yet), and then went shopping at the mall. I can't remember the last time I went to a mall hardly. I ended up with two new pairs of Clarks. yay. I needed new shoes.

Sorry for the anticlimactic ending, but I am fading quickly. I challenge you to be still and listen to God this week.