I Had No Idea . . .

Well, my head didn’t explode. But I did discover something about myself. I was missing something and didn’t even know it. You know how when you have an experience and then for whatever reason, you go for a long time without it. Then when you experience it again, you realize you have been starving for that and didn’t even realize it. But now, there is no turning back. Being in the wilderness doesn’t mean you have to compromise who you are and what God has called you to. And who I am is a daughter of a King. I will not relinquish my birthright just because the circumstances have come “this close” to consuming me. I choose to stand in the knowledge of Whose I am. I will not allow the passion that God has given me to adore Him to be squelched by others lack of passion or understanding. So there!

Now onto last weekend . . .

My weekend of going “Deeper Still” was more than anything I could have imagined or tried to plan on my own. Like I've said before, I am a spoiled daughter of the King. When the opportunity came up for me to go to Atlanta for this conference, I felt very strongly that two specific friends needed to go with me. I would have taken many friends if I could. But felt that these two specific friends needed the encouragement that this weekend would hold. Another friend supplied comp tickets for the event. I found a great hotel room and promised the girls as birthday gifts for each that I would cover the hotel expense. So they just needed to make the arrangements with husbands and family. God orchestrated every step. And off we went to Atlanta.

Both of my friends are in ministry and its been a long year. So even though we’d only be together for about 36 hours, I prayed that God would allow it to be a retreat for them. We arrived Friday afternoon, settled into our room, had a good dinner and set off for the arena. We weren’t exactly sure where we were going and ended up walking around to find where our seats were. Worship had already begun and it was pretty dark in the arena. But we saw were our seats were . . . and to our chagrin, we had to walk down front by the platform right in front of Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, and Kay Arthur. We hesitated for a moment . . . I turned to the girls and said, “I’m going; ya better follow!” And off we walked, right in front of God and everybody. But what a funny memory. Our friend who got the comp tickets completely set us up with incredible seats (we sat in the row right behind the speakers and praise team!) And they were reserved the whole time, so we could come and go without fear of our seats being taken. Another indication that God had plans to spoil us on this weekend.

I’ll post another blog that tells about what God spoke over the weekend. But needles to say, Beth, Kay, and Priscilla are three of the most anointed speakers I have ever heard. And they each had a specific word to share with the 18,999 woman in that arena . . . and yet, every word was for us individually.

After Friday evening’s session, we hung around to see friends and ended up being one of the last people to leave. As we begin to leave, we heard from somewhere in the building "AAAWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAA”. I look around and here comes a child whom I haven’t seen in probably 7-8 years. Except she’s not a child anymore. She has grown into a beautiful young lady. Kelly is now in college and this summer is interning at Lifeway. We connected a couple weeks ago through facebook.com and knew we both would be in Atlanta but two people finding each other among 18,999 women was going to have be a God thing. And a God thing it was. We didn’t talk long because it was so late. But getting to hug one of my children after so many years, well, words can’t tell. My friends who witnessed the reunion said that the look on our faces said it all. And it felt like we just stood there and hugged for 30 mins. What a sweet blessing! And I thought this weekend was going to be for my friends!

Saturday proved to be just as amazing with the words these leaders had to speak and worship among this group had to have been a glimpse of what Heaven will be like. Amy needed to head back to Florida because of a prior commitment. So during our lunch break, we spent the last fleeting moments of our girls weekend making a run to the airport. Suzanne and I headed back to hear the final sessions. Then we parted ways as she went east to visit family and I headed back to Nashville. As I drove the 4 hours back, it gave me time to reflect over the weekend. It really was the perfect weekend. I don’t know that anything about this past weekend could have been anymore perfect. The weather, the friends, the seats, the hotel, the parking, the speakers, the worship, the memories . . . He made it all perfect. And we left with the promise that we’ll try to make this a yearly event.