2/3: you snooze, you lose

invited rebi over for dinner thursday night.  as part of Operation CACH (aka Cooking and Chilean Hospitality), i tried to improve upon the food i had cooked earlier for nellie.  i made the same "Mustard Mashed Potatoes" but had "Maple Glazed Salmon" instead of chicken and improved the color of the broccoli soup to a greener hue, a vast improvement from the Exorcist-girl-pea-vomit-color i had served nellie.  also added a basil tart crust to the blackberry/basil mixture i had given nellie earlier.  i think this meal was an improvement from before...but the food was a bit lukewarm so im gonna give it another try with my next victim....third time's a charm, right?

Maple Glazed Salmon top of Mustard Mashed Potatoes and Creamy Broccoli Soup

Blackberry Basil Tart

dinner with rebi was really good.  i felt like i hadnt really seen or talked with him in a while, and it was pleasantly surprising to see how easy it was to just chat with him.  its weird -- we're friends, but i've never actually sat down and shared a meal with him....my interactions with him have usually been either 1) joking incessantly 2) me acting like a fool around him and his patient tolerance 3) uber-serious-sometimes-heated-exchanges.  so needless to say, i was really glad to share a simple meal with him.  it felt really comfortable, and i actually wish we had more than just that hour to talk.  one thing i appreciate about rebi is how real he is.  he always keeps it real.  he never puts up a mask or a front with me -- which can be both good and bad i guess -- but he says it as it is and doesnt sugar-coat stuff for me.  rebi-realness is one of the things i really appreciate and value about our friendship.  cuz of this rebi-realness, i really take everything he says to heart.

i met with two other sisters from life group after dinner and i felt like God reminded me of an important adage: you snooze, you lose.  i was with my LCG after dinner and got smacked upside the head with this overwhelming, all-consuming food coma.  it was ridiculous.  it was a struggle to keep my eyes open when she was sharing about the week.  it was almost painful to stay awake.  dramatic i know, but if we hadnt been sitting by the door, i would have a narcoleptic episode right in front of her.  thankfully, she let me get some coffee in the middle of the convo, and just the mere act of moving around and guzzling down some bitter black java got me going again.  and once i was awake, as she was sharing about her past week, idk...its like my eyes completely were opened.  not only literally physically opened but also "spiritually" opened.  hearing her share, remembering where she was in the past, recounting her journey this past semester, its so clear that God is just all over her life.  His fingerprints are all over it!  He's brought her so far, and i have full confidence that He will continue to have a huge hand over her life.  after LCG, i saw this same amazing hold of God in another life group sister.  God had given her a huge breakthrough, but what was interesting was that she had absolutely no idea how much of a breakthrough it was.  this reminded me of a verse that i had a read recently:

"Jesus also said, 'The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground.  Night and day while he's asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens" (Mark 4.26-27, NLT).

God is working and moving in our lives night and day, while we're wide awake and while we're snoozing away.  God moves on the DL sometimes, under the radar, right under our noses, and sometimes, we're not completely aware of it at all!  he's simmering away in our hearts while we go on our merry way, completely unaware of this amazing God behind every moment and second of our lives. God had been moving in these lg sisters' lives all this time, without them even noticing or realizing.  and if i hadn't been woken up today by that cup of joe, i would have lost the great privilege of being able to see the great God we worship at work.  i guess that really challenged me to be more alert and mindful to my surroundings, to "catch" God in everything and everyone. 

you snooze, you lose.  but the awesome thing about our God is that even while we're snoozing, He's working; the seed is sprouting and growing.