What a GREAT week-- but different than the other years! We got home from our annual Pepperdine trip late Sunday night. My parents and my little sister accompanied us on the trip this year.
The lectures were really good-- our class with Mike went well, and I actually got to sit in on several of the other wonderful classes-- Yes, I am a lecture geek! I enjoy it! My favorite was Rick Atchley's class with Dave Stone, minister at the Southeast Christian Church in Louisville. Their talks were first rate! They have both been gifted by the Lord! They spoke such truth.
Being in Ken Star's session was also interesting-- he is such a lawyer nerd, but amazingly smart and funny-- which surprised me, because that part of his personality NEVER came across through the media.
No major star sightings this year-- we ate Mexican with Pierce Brosnan and family-- and the lead singer of Incubus (whoever he is?!).
We also had a VERY late into the night conversation with my parents, my sister and my hometown preacher (Paris, TN) which covered the gamut of most of the C of C baggage that you could ever think of.... my parents reluctance to broaden their views on "Christian", instrumental music, the first day of the week Lord's Supper, the issue of baptism-- specifically over if it is necessary for salvation, i.e. is that the point at which you receive the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of your sins, or did that happen on the cross-- etc. etc. etc. -- If you could only have been there for that one folks!!! Isn't it amazing how little we actually discuss our faith with our own immediate family?! Well-- I guess that's not totally true for my side of the family! Seems like we are always staying up late to debate! I think my parents are still a tad in denial over some of their closed-mindedness-- they just can't give up the "glory days of the church", and they aren't much on all the change they see happening-- can't say that I blame them for being sentimental-- just as I am sure I am a tad too open-minded, opinionated, and vain about my own views-- which I am sure I am wrong about on some points!!! Anyway-- they have come a LONG LONG way, and it is nice to see and hear-- even if it is 1:00 a.m. As for me? I am still on the journey myself.
Before coming home, we visited the Reagan Library. It was nice. So odd to be walking through a timeline of someone's life--- his baby photo and announcement in the local paper, his elementary yearbook, the actual restaurant booth where he proposed to Nancy, a display of handwritten love letters and notes he had penned for her, the wedding suit Nancy wore, a concrete remnant from the backyard of their first home where they had carved their initials... Hundreds and thousands of bits and pieces and trinkets which comprised his life. It made me stop and think about what would be in my "museum" when all is said and done.
Here is Amy with the ugly glasses she had to wear during middle school to correct the lazy eye problem she had; the actual clarinet she played in the band; basketball jersey with #32 which she wore for the Mayfield Middle School Cardinals-- (although she might have been #33-- she and her best friend Stacie always mixed up their jerseys, so they never really knew who was which by the end of the season); photo of Amy and her high school sweetheart Lance; her senior portrait with the BIG 80's hair; Her graduation program from Lipscomb; hundreds of books from her days as an English teacher; Photos of her with Scott-- their engagement at the horse farm, their wedding; thousands of photos of their son Luke.....
I can't really begin to imagine what would go behind the glass after that.... makes my head hurt! Life is so funny-- it all comes down to old stuff, faded photos, and snippets of memories.... Gather ye rosebuds while you may-- or at least the digital photo files! Praise the Lord, that there is more to this life than what we make it of it here on earth!
So great to run into so many bloggers out at Pepperdine! What a neat group of people! Keep on blogging!