Embrace the Moment

Today is the day. Of course it is the day that the Lord has made and I am rejoicing in it. Today is my last official day as the Ministries Associate at Houston's First Baptist Church. In fact the title Ministries Associate is being put away and the next person will be an Executive Assistant. So in my heart of hearts, they couldn't replace me. :)

This week has been an amazing, amazing week. I never use amazing in a sentence unless I am singing I Stand Amazed in His Presence or Amazing Grace much less put it in a sentence twice, but heck, I just felt like doing that. Whew, got that off my bucket list. Anyway, this has been an outstanding week. So to help me remember to stay in a moment, I wore my bracelet that says, "Embrace the Moment." I've embraced and now treasuring such wonderful memories as I wrapped up my work at HFBC. Monday, Melinda took me out to lunch at Empire Cafe. Melinda, or as I like to call her, Bolinda, and I have known each other and been friends since our Married Young Adult days. I loved that time with her and plan to keep her on the lunch calendar. Let's see, oh yes Tuesday was Ministries Staff meeting. Now usually those meetings can be good but here lately they have been just plain boring. I will not miss the boring part but I will miss the texting and eye contact with others taking part in the meeting. So it was bittersweet picking up the Starbucks for the meeting. Since I have been picking up travelers for quite some time at this Starbucks they said what they usually say, see you in a couple of weeks. I told them they would still see me but next time in workout clothes. The Ministries meeting ended earlier than usual so that we could all have lunch together and celebrate the success of Midnight Madness. They brought in Tia Maria fajitas and the place was rockin'.


Wednesday, those who could went to Jax Grill to celebrate my retirement at lunch. I was shocked that so many came. To tell you the truth, I was secretly relieved because I envisioned it being Jason, me and just a few others. Fresh on my mind was my 50th birthday party and the embarrasment of inviting everyone to share a kind thought or a memory out loud. No one said anything. I was so mortified and wanted to die. Only one person said anything and she reported that she thought I was a snob and now knew I wasn't. The good thing was my parents didn't want to attend the party, so they weren't there. It would have been the primo opportunity for my dad to say what he has told me all my life, "see, I told you no one likes you." Oops, I digress, anyway there were so many Ministries friends there and the Recreation Ministry came too. We all laughed and enjoyed each other. Cassi gave me a box of cookies from Memorial Bakery, well actually Christen gave them to me because Cassi was home sick. Their iced cookies are the best!


I was blown away by the kindness and generosity of the Selection Committee. They gave me a gift card to Taste of Texas, one of my favorite places to eat. It took me by surprise that I just bawled and I don't even know if I properly thanked them. So I sent them an email this morning. Peggy came by the office with a book called Listography. You tell the story of your life by making a list in answering the questions. Loved having that moment of celebrating with her. Since Peggy is retired too, I-10 and the Westpark Toll Road will be burning up with our trips back and forth.


This morning was a little good bye donut hole snack time. My friends know the way to my heart and gifted me with Nordy gift cards and a Starbucks gift card. I am overwhelmed with friendship and love from my friends. It seemed to me I didn't have anymore tears left to shed, but a few popped up during Jason's prayer.

Hmm...there seems to be a trend here. All week long it was about goodbyes and eating.


I was able to leave today the way I had prayed and asked God for. I just wanted to be able to slip out without any big scenes or good byes. I mean really, I will be there for church on Sunday morning. I'll be calling and making Starbuck runs for my friends. Eventually, I will even volunteer.


Throughout these past few weeks I have remembered and pondered my years of working at HFBC. Jason and I would tear up from time to time as we recalled fond ministry times. We laughed at our love of jokes and funny stories, we even had one last "tiff" to clear out the pipes. But it was time for me to move on. During the holidays as Roy and I prayed about my work future and decisions that would need to be made, I heard in my spirit the Lord saying to me, "you are holding someone back" when I'd think, well maybe to help out I should stay at least through Spring Loaded. After everything that went down on Monday with the closing of the bookstore and the significant downsizing of Membership Services, I see why the Lord was speaking that to me. My job opening helped someone to stay employed.


There are some other fun stories I want to share, but this post is getting amazingly, amazingly long. (Check off using amazingly as an adverb on bucket list) People ask me 'what are you going to do?" I respond whatever I want to. One thing for sure, I am going to get my crank call on. I plan on visiting the Sprint, AT&T and Verizon stores under the guise of purchasing a new phone. I will use their phones to make prank calls to friends at church. I have to do this because of caller i.d. I can call and be disgruntled church member number 12 or complaining church member number 1742. They'll have to be nice and take the call in stride. I have to work on not laughing when I prank call...that will surely give me away.


As I drove out of the North parking lot as a civilian my thoughts turned to, well, what to do now? I did what needed to be my first act of a newly freed up person, I went to the bookstore and bought John Grisham's new book. I came home, took a short nap and I think this next thing is a total gift of welcome home from the Lord. My all time favorite I Love Lucy episode was on where Lucy sings, I am the Queen of the Gypsies." Yep, it is all looking good.