Lunch with Leneil

Hi everyone!

It’s not just the sunshine in the sky that can brighten our lives, but the people that bring sunshine into our lives as well.  I have been so abundantly blessed with the most amazing friends & colleagues!  We all have struggles, we all fight to do what is right and walk down the narrow path, but it is through the people that just illuminate in all that He has done in their lives and in doing so help us work on the light in our own lives that makes all the difference.

Last spring our college welcomed a new president, Dr. Rick Brewer.  Now being born a Cajun & Catholic and being raised where music was such a big part to all family gatherings – having a president that could play the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis was a God wink from the get go!  Through the weeks and months our little college community has gotten to witness what a true ray of sunshine that he is to us all. 

In chapel today he spoke of “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” something that I think we all struggle with at times.  Today though, not only is the weather beautiful outside, but the SON was shining as bright as ever inside the auditorium as well.  

How many people go to work each week, counting the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until Friday?  How many people dream of doing something that makes them happy instead of feeling like each day they drive to work is a death march, slowly killing their soul?

On the other hand, how many people get to take an hour out of their Thursday each week to go into an auditorium, lift their voices in worship – not worrying what their neighbor thinks their voice sounds like - and just sing like no one is listening?  How many people get to take an hour out of their Thursday morning and just lay all their struggles & troubles down at a cross – and walk out feeling the weight of the world lifted off their shoulders?  Yes, I know.  I know what an incredible gift and opportunity I have the privilege of being a part of.  

Now I know some people reading this might say, “Wait a minute…you mean you go to church on Sunday & Wednesday AND to chapel on Thursday at work too?  That’s too much Jesus for me.”  But the thing is, I don’t go to church and chapel out of obligation; it doesn’t feel like just another box I need to check in my life so that I have “done the right things” for the week.  I go because I have a relationship with the Lord and I love to sing and hang out with Him and watch for His God winks because I know He has a sense of humor and I know sometimes He winks at me with both eyes and His hands waiving frantically.

Sometimes He has me give God wink books to complete strangers or surprise hurting people with gift baskets that look like they came off of “Oprah’s Favorite Things” list.  Sometimes I struggle and try to reason with Him – “you want me to do what???  For real???”  Because sometimes it makes no sense WHAT SO EVER!!  It use to scare me, but I guess having done this for over 9 years, now when it happens I just tell Him, “Ok, let’s roll with this!”

Time with Him is like having lunch with my friend Leneil.  She is such a ray of sunshine – even when she does take me to THE scariest places in town to see a house she thinks “I should buy.”  Leniel makes me laugh until I cry and she is one of those rays of sunshine that makes you want to roll down the windows of the car and let the Christian radio station play for all of the world to hear.  

I laughed on our adventure today and I also had to remind her that she HAS to  be a character in my book – there is just no way around that.  As she drove me to see my “dream” house by the cemetery I couldn’t help but laugh, since she is also the school counselor – “Leniel, Dr. Brewer said leave the past behind.  No more cemetery angel pictures or homes anywhere need a cemetery!!”  

I think when we can reach the point that we find humor in the sorrow we have truly left it behind.  I think that when we have a relationship with the Lord that let's us honestly just tell Him, "you know...I messed up today.  But on the bright side it was a better day than yesterday," it puts a peace and a freedom into our lives that money cannot buy.

No one is perfect, my own kids aren't perfect - and even when they mess up I wouldn't trade them for the world.  So just think about it for a minute.  Yes, there are times when my kids could make a preacher cuss, but it would not stop me from loving them.  If I can love these 3 kids so very much and laugh and joke with them - then just think - God sent His ONLY Son to die for our sins.  

He didn't have 3 kids like me - He had ONE, but He loved me; He loved you; He loved my kids, and everyone else in this world SO much that He was willing to sacrifice His only child for all of us.

No matter what you have been through in your life, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS remember that their is an AMAZING God out there who can bring sunshine into your soul everyday of the week AND who loves us all to the point of giving His only son for us.  

With a father like that, with a sacrifice like that - it doesn't make you want to get too far off of the narrow road.

Until tomorrow...