Good Counsel

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My weekend has come to a close, and it's been an eventful one.  Some of it very good, and a bit of not so great.  However, not so great is much better than absolutely awful, and I prefer to focus on the positive and work from there.
The good parts were that I got to spend some time with some wonderful friends that I get to see nearly as often as I'd like to.

Kristen L., Torres and I met up yesterday afternoon at one of our haunts on Southside, and somehow, we managed to keep the laughter to a reasonable volume.  Usually, we're quite loud. 

The mood wasn't subdued, but we had so much to catch up on, it was like being in a newsroom with bits of information flying across the table to one another.  I was loving it!  

It felt good to hear familiar laughter, and see familiar smiles.  And, it felt good to be all caught up with a lot of the stuff going on in their lives.

The good Bishop Spencer K. McCool Sr. reiterated earlier something wonderful about real friends.  It can be days, months, weeks or even years between one seeing the other, but with good friends, you simply pick up where you left off, keep going, and enjoy what time you've got together.  Point is, if you've got friends like that you're blessed, and if you don't you have my sympathy.  Mine are a part of what makes life rich, and I'm very thankful for the privilege of having them.

Kristen L.

I tend to feel sorry for Torres when Kristen and I dive into a discussion on politics.  Torres is not one to enjoy political discussion.  For that matter, Kristen and I don't like politics much either.  But, we all like freedom, and we frequently discuss how much we'd like to keep it.

And, while Kristen and I engage in a passionate and rapid-fire exchange on steps being made to keep the power with the people, Torres ends up being stuck in the middle of the cacophony, keeping the boat steady.

I gotta hand it to her, she makes a great team-anchor, and she manages it flawlessly.  So far she hasn't asked us to get up and sit somewhere else far, far away from her.

Kristen and I don't agree on everything, however, the gap is bridged by mutual respect for one anothers' differences in beliefs and opinions.

One of the points we DO agree on, and strongly, is that control of the country should always be in the hands of "We The People", not the bureaucrats and politicians.

Torres and D.J.

I'm of the opinion we managed to keep the volume down at yesterday's dinner because we were lacking D.J. Davis in the mix.

The best description I have of our friend D.J. is that of a firecracker.  She's teeny-tiny, but toss her into a wagon load of dormant fireworks, and stand back because the whole things gonna blow up into a rocketing display of color and sparkles.

She's wonderful company and I love it when she's got time to meet up with the rest of us for an outing.

When the outing finished and we parted ways, I made it home in time to spend the remainder of the evening in a "square table" discussion on the patio, until late into the night, with Jared, Seth and Lukas, of the Muscle Next Door.  With cooler temps, during our impromptu conferences, the guys tend to drink cocoa and I drink coffee, while we sit and discuss the latest in books, software, hardware, politics, Christianity, people of interest, etc., etc., until our teeth are chattering and our eyelids are heavy.  I think we called it quits and put our ideas to bed around midnight.  Our back-yard brainstorming always leave me tired, but it also keeps me young-minded, and I leave them with fresh ideas for consideration as well as literature content.

In regards to the good Bishop McCool, many of us are die-hard in our devotion to reading those little posts he puts up daily on facebook, barring when he simply isn't able to get to it, and that's not often.  He's been pretty steadfast about making them happen since I've been an avid follower of what he writes, which started about a year ago, this month.  Many, many things have changed in my heart since reading those posts, all in good ways, and the improvement continues.

It takes time to do them.  Time he could be spending doing other things.  And, he doesn't just yank a scripture and throw it on the page.  He's thought about it.  He's prayed about it.  He's considered the impact it might have.  And, I think  he'd still take the time to do it if it, even if it was only helping one person. 

He doesn't do it for popularity.  He doesn't make any money from it.  He doesn't do it because he has nothing else, or better to be doing.

Bishop Spencer K. and Lady Joyce McCool

He does it because he cares, for me, for you, and for anyone else who might be reading his work.  He doesn't mind when it's copied and pasted onto other peoples' pages.  I've even seen his dailys show up on other folks pages who didn't attribute the post to being his, yet I've never heard him fuss about it. 

He, and his Lady Joyce, have their own battles to fight, their own struggles to cope with, and yet they continue to share what they have freely, with the rest of us.  What they share is the Good News, the Gospel of Christ, hope, encouragement, confirmation, and in a unique and personal way. 

In the reading and the reaping, it's easy to forget that they might need ministered to as well.  That truth can easily become an oversight by their readers because the Bishop and Joyce are incredibly strong, positive and resolute people.  But truth is, they DO need prayer, every day, just like the rest of us.

I'm saying this for two reasons.  One is to ensure it's known that I'm thankful for their friendship, for their ministry, for the type of lives they lead, and the help and guidance I've often derived from it.  The other is as a reminder to keep them in our prayers as well, so they can continue to do those marvellous things they do that stir the soul in so many of us, and help us to keep moving in the right direction.

God bless you, thank you for reading, and please don't forget to thank a Vet the next time you have the opportunity!

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