Red Lights, Rain Delays, & Exploding Catsup Bottles

Haven't posted for a while. September has been insane. All good stuff but intense. Thanks be to God for the mercy ministry outreach. Here's a picture of the finished house. Should have been a painting contractor. Not really. Took me two days to recover. I think I'll stick to writing sermons from behind a desk.

But I did recover, thankfully, enough to write this post tonight from a hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Someone gifted me a trip to the Desiring God National Conference commemorating the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth. I do love this place. I treasure this ministry. I pray the viral contagion of Christian hedonism infects me and my ministry all the more from yet another exposure to the truths and passion of this work.

It was no picnic getting here, that's for sure. It was one of those days for teaching you the virtue of patience. Didn't sleep well the night before. Hit every red light, it seemed, on 436 between Casselberry and OIA. Sat for two extra hours in the Atlanta airport waiting for rain to clear at MSP. Waited interminably long, or at least it felt that way, in the Super Shuttle while a new mom tried to figure out how to install a ginormous car seat in the van for her baby. Hit rush hour traffic going downtown. And then to top it all off, at dinner, I go to open the catsup bottle and the thing erupts in an explosion of the red stuff all over my hands, shirt, and the only pair of jeans I've got with me for this trip. It was almost comical.

All was not for nought, though. The manager took pity on me and comped the meal. Sure glad I offered to buy. I left the server an extra big grat. My server son would have been proud. My Father, I think, was pleased that in my desire to get to Minneapolis for a conference that matters to me I didn't miss the bigger picture that today was a day for cultivating the virtue of patience, and it really didn't matter if the delays ate up the margin and if I walk around all weekend with catsup stains on my jeans. Perhaps I am learning something about what matters most after all these years.