Life Group Amazing-ness

I was just rereading some of my older blogs (since I'm SUPER bored during prep and don't want to start typing study guides yet) and saw the one about my apprehension towards Life Group. That is GONE. Tuesday's Life Group meeting was incredible and I'm so excited to see what God starts to do in this group of ours.

It started with a mess of us meeting in the Ralphs parking lot to caravan down to Lake Forest. I ended up in the car with Garrett, Mike and Trenton while the Amys, Beth and Breann followed. We almost died in a crazy u-turn maneuver by Amy (which occurred WHILE I was on the phone with Mrs. Hassig) but otherwise the car ride down was hilarious. Of course, I got stuck in the car with all the boys and thus our conversation revolved around boy stuff. We talked about (OK, THEY talked about) fast cars, audio systems, audio systems IN fast cars, buying versus leasing, etc. I just sat and listened, absolutely amused.

We only had 4 people missing from the meeting, which was really nice. We talked about some expectations and ideas for the group (although Trenton forgot the epic suggestion box) and then went onto Life Stories. Man alive, I learned some things that I hadn't ever expected- I don't want to write them down just to be respectful to those who shared but man, it was crazy. These are things that you never expect when you meet someone and it reveals so much about the person. We are so lucky to have a group that comes from so many different backgrounds. I'm so excited to see that God is going to do with all of us.

After group was over, we arranged to all hang out at Panera on Friday (I'm so craving their food right now I cannot wait until 7 and a half hours), then go to a Costa Mesa community event and then deliver our Thanksgiving in a bag to our families. I'm stoked to just go and hang out with these people and I hope it's a great night. After we left Tim and Wendy's, my car, plus Chuck, Casey, Kendall and Heather stood outside talking for a good twenty minutes before we realized it was late and we were kind of loud. The drive home was again filled with boy talk but it was all good- I adore all of them.

I'm so glad that I kept going with this life group thing. I hope it continues to bless my life abundantly.

Creepers

Megan and I always seem to run into the biggest creepers. Last night, Dallas Willard was speaking at Rock Harbor. A bunch of us from college group- me, Megan, Kasey, Cosy, Seth, Colin, Jenny, Lucas, Kristina, plus Andy Hamilton and Steve Stubblefield and Rob Pierce- all went to go hear him speak. Cosy and I had dinner before hand, kind of on the run and in the car and in the patio area of Rock Harbor. The speaker was definitely different from what I expected. I thought it was going to be a lecture format and then maybe Q&A at the end. I don't really know much about Dallas Willard other than he's a pretty huge name in Christian circles so I was excited to hear what he had to say about transformation. Unfortunately things kind of rolled downhill when about 45 minutes, maybe less, into the discussion, they started opening it up to questions from the audience. That turned into a massive therapy session, talking about anger and feeling invalidated and transparent and that's when I totally lost focus. Trenton was in the audience elsewhere and he and I were texting each other- Megan and I were sitting NEXT to each other and we were texting each other. It was crazy. Around 8:30 they said that there was about another hour and we all died a little inside. So at one point, a little before 8:45, they did this exercise where we get up to introduce ourselves but instead of saying our name and job, we say our car and what we had for breakfast. That's when we made our escape- we were OUT of there. A few minutes later, as I was walking through the parking lot after saying goodbye to Megan and Kasey (Seth and Cosy had bailed about five minutes before), I ran into Steve, Colin, Jenny and Rob who had all bailed as well. So much for listening to Dallas Willard. I just felt bad that I wasn't focusing at all!

But let's talk about the creeper. There was this guy sitting behind me. I knew he was trouble when he started "yes, Lording" during the prayers. Not quietly but pretty loudly. And then he was typing on his computer like he was, as Megan put it, tenderizing meat. I have never heard some type so dang loud! And then he started making comments. I think that's what scared me the most. What is it with me and Megan running into creepers? First creepy skeleton motorcycle man and now meat tenderizer Typie McTyperson. We must be magnets!