When those moments come, I really try to cherish them. It's an antidote against their evil twin brother moments; times when our place in this world is anything but secure, everyone and everything (including the checker at the grocery store) hates us and of course thinks we're dumb, fat, ugly, obnoxious, high maintenance (or choose any number of your own negatively connotated adjectives), and we're not even sure where God is.

But that is not the theme for me today. I wish to share my Stuart Smalley moments, as I remember them from the last 24 hours or so.

-being invited to join a guestbook of people I don't even know

-seeing her this morning, and then eating lunch with Jordana

-receiving a 2 minute phone call from Kami, while she was running an errand, so that she could tell me she was having a pissy day

-Erin's email this morning, in which she understood the importance of safety in certain instances of life's interchanges

-Nate bringing up paper, and then proceeding to be a smart a** - the funny, endearing kind vs. the you're a real jerk kind

-Matt calling at work just to check in and find out about the last 18 hours since we talked last

-Esther getting mad (via email) at someone who made me feel uncomfortable

-Sarah Cooper's replayed message and reread email

-sitting next to Tara at Jack's restaurant

-getting phone calls at work I can transfer away

-Listening to David Crowder sing about the stars

There are, of course, others...but I want to mention one last one. At the Passion concert last night, I ran into some people from Simpson. One girl asked me, "Did you do a Stones of Remembrance my freshman year?" (which was my senior year). I said, "no," but I did speak in chapel.

The highlight is that she told me it was her favorite chapel that year. She also told me she only remembered one part.

"Let me guess what part it was," I said. "I bet it's the same part everyone remembers."

During that chapel I was speaking about the work of Christ as prophesied in Isaiah 61 (bind up the broken hearted, proclaim freedom for captives...oils of joy, many of you know the passage), and when Jesus said he had fulfilled that work when he opened the scroll and read(see Luke 4). I made some personal testimony, using an anecdote of a realization I came to my senior year in high school...it went like this:

"Mom" (I was talking to my mom)...

"Mom... I'm short, I'm chubby, I have glasses, I have braces, and I get good grades." (Please insert exasperated sigh).

"I am the epitome of a nerd."

Yeah, that's the part everyone remembers.

Well, nerd or not, I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And dog-gone it! People like me.

:)

With love, Trace

p.s. I'm at work now, but it's time for my break....