The COOLEST thing happened tonight. We went to our small group and our topic was conflict and all these really intense things were brought up, like people's pasts, pain, how we each deal with conflict, our childhoods, etc; some really personal and deep stuff. It was wonderful. We discussed with them our need to be at a different church (like Church Under the Bridge) and they were totally cool with it. They were so encouraging and said it would be a shame if we pretended that we liked going to Gateway when we really wanted to be outside, under the sun, with all the smelly, dirty, sinful people like ourselves. They said they wanted us to stay a part of the group and were actually excited about the different perspective we will bring to the group by going to a different church. Cool.

Bottom line, it was like group therapy with some really cool people.

(I wish I could use some other word, but my vernacular does not allow any other word but cool right now -- someday I'll have the vocabulary and insight like Heath, but he's 30 so I have a few years to catch up. I also just realized that I used the word vernacular in my explanation of my vocabulary deficiency. Hmm. My linguistics teacher really changed my life. This is a really long "sidebar.")

Nights like these restore my faith in God and His desire for us to love each other and feel wanted and needed, even. The love is just flowin tonight. As Joanna used to say in her oh so awkward but beautiful teenage years, awesome possum.