Isn’t amazing how God works things out sometimes.  I’m not necessarily a chatty person when I’m flying.  I know there are some of you out there who look forward to taking flights just so you can talk to your seat mate.  I’m not that person.  I like to read or better yet sleep.  So I wasn’t looking for someone to chat with on the plane today.  But God has other plans.

After shoving my bag into the overhead storage I took my seat by the window.  My seat mate commented about how he ripped his bags on his way to Africa a few months ago and had to duct tape them back together for the rest of the trip.  Now you chatty types would see this as an opportunity to hop into a wonderful conversation about Africa and his trip.  I don’t do that…I smile, nod, and say, “That had to suck.”  I figure this is sympathetic, but keeps me from having to talk anymore.

But God has other plans.  A few minutes later, my seat mate asks if I’m originally from Seattle.  I told no that I live in Albuquerque and that I’m going to a conference in Seattle.  He asked what conference.  Now honestly I was thinking about lying and saying I was going to some UPS conference or something…but I decided to say that I was going to the Resurgence conference.  At this point he told me he was going to the same one.

After talking about the conference a little, he started telling me about his ministry.  He is part of a record label called Reach Records and a ministry called ReachLife.  And for the next hour he showed me videos and had me listen to audio that his ministry has produced.  I must say they are really using their culture to present the gospel in a way that people understand.  You need to check them out at http://www.reachlife.org/.  Pretty awesome stuff.

So Shannon and I like to go for walks in the mall. If you leave your wallet and purse in the car, it’s actually pretty fun. We get out of the cold and you can always stop for a fresh pretzel.

There is one thing that is mandatory in our walks at the mall. We have to stop at Brookstone and use the iSqueez. The iSqueez is a foot massager that does more than the usual moving nodules and vibrations. As the name states, it actually squeezes you feet.

At first this might sound like a cheap gimmick, but then you try it and you are stuck (literally and figuratively). There is a reason it is $399. Because people will pay that much for a few minutes in heaven (two minutes in heaven is better than one minute in heaven). It has taken a lot of self control to not pony up the money right there on the spot (and from the look in the salesman’s eyes…he expects me to).

Shannon and I actually planned on buying it (on ebay for much cheaper) as our Valentines day gift. It didn’t work out though. So now I’m thinking about trying to register for it for our baby shower. We registered for a 50″ plasma screen TV (what else is the kid going to watch Baby Einstein on). Why not this?

We know that God works in mysterious ways. But sometimes I think His ways are more weird than anything. You see, Shannon and I have been wanting to get to know our neighbors. And by getting to know our neighbors I mean that we’ve been waiting for them to show up at our door with cookies. We’ve known that God wants us to reach out to our neighbors and not live in our own little bubble. We just haven’t acted on it. So God decided to do some action for us.

The other night Shannon and I were watching the last few minutes of Shark on TV when our door bell began to ring. Now this wasn’t your typical ding dong door bell ringing that most people do. This was a ding ding ding ding dong ding ding dong dong ding ding. You know that annoying kind of door bell ringing that your ADHD friend does when they show up at the door.

Expecting to open to the door and see one of my college friends or a very confused tricker treater, I was quite confused to see a vey scared women at my door step. “Help Me!….someone chasing me….Help Me!” she said between he deep breaths as she had obviously been running. I quickly invited into the house and locked the door behind her.

As I smelled the alcohol on her breath, I asked her if she wanted me to call the police. Still breathing heavily, she said, “Yes….yes…” As I get the phone the lady stood in the corner trying to catch her breath and kept looking around the room with this crazed look in her eyes.

I called 911 and gave her my information and explained the situation. At this point I expected the operator to ask me for a description of the ladies attacker. Instead the operator began to ask me to describe the lady in my house. A little odd, but I obliged. In fact after I gave her the description of the lady, the operator informed that she had dispatched an officer and they would be on there way. She then got off the phone with me.

So I’m standing in my living room with this lady who is huddled in the corner, with alcohol on her breath, and a crazed look in her eyes. At this point, I kinda realized that there isn’t anyone following this lady. I just got this feeling that she is on some kind of a drug induced state and this is all in her head.

As I’m coming to this realization, she turns, unlocks the door, and proceed to run out the door and down the street. At this point, I started to put on my shoes (was just wearing some blue jeans and t-shirt). Shannon asked me, “Are you going after her?”"No…I’m getting ready for the police.”So I got my shoes, jacket and bennie on and waited outside for the police (and kept my eye out for the lady or a possible attacker).

A few minutes later the lady came running back down the street in the opposite direction (At this point I’m pretty sure she is crazy.). She ran down the street and went to my neighbors house across the street and a few houses down and proceeded to do the same thing to them that she did to me. Right after she runs out of their house and bolts down the street, the police finally arrive and pick her up. Having dealt with the law in the past (as an RA) I knew they were going to want to talk to me.

So I started to walk down the street to where they were. At that time, I saw my neighbor come out of his house and walk over to the police (they only a house over from where he was). Before I could get to the police, my neighbor was walking back to his house. At this point I talked to my neighbor for the first time.

“Do they need to talk to us?”

“No they said they have it under control.” he responded and I stopped walking and compared stories with him in front of his house. As they put the lady inside the cruiser, I began to introduce my self to my neighbor and his wife for the first time. As we were talking, I began to realize that it took God sending a crazy lady that was being chased by and invisible man to my front door to get me to go meet my neighbors. It’s not as nice as a plate of cookies…but it worked.