Waiting

Wow, it sure has been a while. As everyone does, I guess I've just had a lot going on! I'm here with a cup of coffee now, though, so won't you sit down and join me?

Over the summer, a friend of mine and I took my girls to a One Direction concert in Philadelphia. (No, we don't live in Philadelphia. My sister does, though, so we at least had a place to stay.) We left after work on a Wednesday (arriving very late), went to the concert on Thursday and then drove home on Friday. Then? I had a 40th birthday part for my husband on Saturday. That was a busy week.

Anyway, the concert. It seemed like it was going to be a nice night at this outdoor venue. Maybe cool, but nice. After the opening act, my older daughter went to the bathroom. The younger one mentioned she was a little cold, so I started to hand her my jacket - which is when the heavens opened up and gallons and gallons and gallons of water came down. Gallons. We were in the middle of a row, toward the the top of the section. There was no point in trying to get up and out; there were people everywhere! Finally, we were told we had to leave. We saw my older daughter near the concessions. She said that she saw people running and screaming as she came out of the bathroom and was terrified that something awful was happening. Poor thing.

Looking pretty before the rain

Drowned rats after the rain

(I'm really taking a long time to get to the point of this post. But, I feel like I had to tell you that it rained. And we got really wet. And that my friend drove all the way to Philadelphia with me to see a One Direction concert and got poured on. That's love.)

Then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped. The sky cleared and thousands of tweens and teens started screaming and getting ready. The adults seemed to be trying to figure out how to sit in wet jeans and still be comfortable. (Fun fact: my friend took her jeans off and road back to my sister's house pantless. I thought I should probably keep mine on in case we got pulled over, as I was driving. She's kind of smart, though, because wet jeans are. gross.  But then we stopped at a store for snacks and she couldn't come in because she couldn't get her wet jeans back on.)

The girls really did seem to enjoy the concert. There were some tears. There were lots of cell phone pictures. There was lots of dancing. At some point I had the brilliant idea to Google the set list so we knew how much longer we had to be there. It definitely made it easier to count down when we knew what to expect.

Note the rubber One Direction bracelets. Oh brother.

Just before the encore, I decided to text my sister to give her an idea of when to expect us back at the house. You know how your phone will give you suggested words because it thinks it knows what you're going to say? Well, I typed the word, "Waiting." Then, it suggested, "for" and I clicked on it. Then, it suggested, "the." See where this is going? I sure thought I did. I mean, I wanted to say that I we were, "Waiting for the encore." But, the next word my phone had in mind was, "Lord." Apparently my Galaxy S4 believes that, while at a One Direction concert, I was actively waiting for Jesus.

I have to say that we had a rather lengthy discussion as to how Jesus would've behaved if he had chosen that night to come back. Would he want them to finish their set? Does he like One Direction? It's so hard to say.

Shouldn't we all be actively waiting all of the time? Shouldn't we be living our lives as if it could be right now, at this minute? Shouldn't we be loving God and loving our neighbor NOW?  Maybe he'll come back during a concert. Or, while I'm doing dishes. (That would be good!) Or, when we're making cookies for a shut-in neighbor. But, let's all live intentionally and actively while we're waiting so we're ready when he does.

Be kind, everyone!