God’s got a great sense of humor

Who knew? Really? I always thought God was this serious, angry man. He must love to laugh, or at least chuckle, because He totally blew my mind this weekend at Women of Faith!

As you may have read in my Arguing with God never works post, even before the weekend He was rocking my world — getting me out of my comfort zone. Once I got my friend Tonya in the car, I figured it was all down hill from there. Then the thought crossed my mind and out my lips — God’s got a purpose for Tonya to be at Women of Faith. He must have a purpose for me this weekend too.

Now, I say that Tonya is my friend, really now she is — before the weekend I didn’t know much if anything about her. I sat in her Sunday School class and knew her name. I knew she had 4 boys (though I didn’t know all their names), and I knew her husband wasn’t with her in Sunday School. That was pretty much all I knew about Tonya — oh, and except that God impressed on my heart that she needed a break, to be refueled, and that she was busy helping everybody else around her.

During the weekend she and I had some great conversations. I continually had to laugh at (with?) God because He had put the two of us together in this situation. There are things that we are totally opposite about. She’s beach. I’m mountains. She cooks. I’m Queen of the Drive-Thru. She thinks computers are of the devil. I’m on the computer way too much. But no matter what our differences are, we both love Jesus and want to know what’s God’s will.

We had an amazing time. We cried. We laughed. We talked. We slept (a little). I pray that God used me to speak to her and encourage her in her struggles. She encouraged me to share my stories with others. She encouraged me that I can organize at least 50 people to come to Women of Faith next year. Yep, you heard that right.

They kept announcing that if you committed to bringing 50 peeps to Women of Faith next year they’d fly you to Dallas in January for a preview and training — an all-expense paid trip. No airfare. No money for hotel or food. At first Tonya would just lean over and say “you could do that.” Then it turned to “you should go to that meeting.” She wouldn’t let up. So when I thought the last meeting had occurred, I told her if she found out where I should get more information from, I’d think about it.

She found the table. We talked to the guy behind the table. I was wavering. We struggle financially. How could I commit to these tickets? If I don’t sell all of them, I’d be responsible for paying for them? But Tonya said they had gotten a group of about 25 women just from our church (which shocked me because it’s a kinda small church — but she said they brought friends). I joked and told her if it was online, I could do it But my peeps are all over!

Finally when I started thinking about all the people I know in other churches, I caved in. I thought surely I can get enough of my friends in other places to get other friends, and I’ll be able to do this. What a story I’ll have to tell people from going to the pre-conference last year by myself, to asking Patsy for tickets this year to bringing a group of 50 next year. Not to mention I had already run into 2 friends who I didn’t know where going to be at the conference.

I signed up.

I folded the copy he gave me and stuck it in my back pocket. A knot formed in my stomach. I didn’t want to look at what else he had written. As we walked back to our seats, I looked up and said, “God you know the 50 women you want to be here next year in my group — just please don’t take too long letting me know them.”

We sat down in our seats, and I started thinking about telling Duck what I’d done. I thought he’d tell me I’m crazy, so I pulled the piece of paper out of my back pocket. I looked at the total of the tickets — the amount I’d have to pay if I didn’t sell one of them. I almost puked. Tonya looked over at me and said, “calm down. It’ll be ok. I’ll take one and I know others that will too. I’ll pray for you.” When I got home Saturday night, I told Duck that I had signed up to sell these tickets. His response? “Good luck with that.” Which made me laugh. out. loud.

When I woke up Sunday morning, God hit me with another idea, and the worry about selling all these tickets hasn’t overwhelmed me since. I’ve realized there are even more ladies I know that I can talk to and challenge them to bring a friend. Now I can’t help but wonder how many over 50 God’s going to send my way. He’s funny that way too. I can just see Him sitting in heaven laughing at my lack of faith and my worries.

Just planting the seed right now … you know you want to go to Women of Faith next year

Here are some pictures

Steven Curtis Chapman — you know I cried when he was talking about Maria. It was absolutely awesome to see him perform. Oh, and it didn’t hurt that we were on the second row right in front of him

It totally blew Tonya’s mind that I had known Beth @ Sports Momma online for probably about 2 years and never met her in person — until Women of Faith I fell in love with Beth’s original blog design where the header had a softball and said “I throw like a girl.” Cracked me up! Beth and I chat a lot on Twitter and I was so glad I finally got to meet her!