So, we have a new strip mall in our town.  HOORAY!! HOORAY!!  HOORAY !!!!!

When we moved in to our house ten years ago, we had ONE grocery store in town and had to drive to Franklin to do any kind of shopping.  NOW...our town is simply exploding.  It's THE town to live in in Middle Tennessee.   Amazing how we stumbled on it ten years ago.  Anyway,  in the ten years we've lived here lots of things have moved in to town -  three HUGE grocery stores, Home Depot, Lowe's, lots of strip malls, GREAT restaurants, and just last month ANOTHER great strip mall with a SuperTarget and LOTS of great stores.  This one is really close to us.  Though we still live OUT IN THE COUNTRY.  Phil still has almost 3 acres to mow. 

BUT... the entrance to the SuperTarget mall is kinda funky.  Hard to explain but they made the entrance with a traffic circle, and it's kind of confusing.  The main entrance has TWO lanes of traffic in each direction and they REALLY need some kind of a sign with arrows pointing or something... 

So, the other day, I'm just minding my own business, waiting at the traffic light.  It turned green and I turned left in to the mall.  (Did I mention it's a mere eight minute drive from my house???)  I was in the left lane and lo and behold, there's a car coming straight at me.  Straight at me!!  It took me a second to process the fact that I was heading for a head on collision.  When it did I flashed my lights, beeped my horn, and she came to a screeching  halt directly in front of me. Inches from my front bumper.  PHEW! That was close! 

Except for the fact that she was VERY ANNOYED that I was going the wrong direction in HER lane.  Except I was not. She was.  She was confused, and I was not.  I knew the truth and she did not. While the cars behind me pulled out and went around me, and other cars continued to enter the mall in the right lane next to me - I was having a standoff with the lady in the car in front of me.   I had two choices:  I could ignore the danger she was in, pull out, go my own way and let another car slam in to her - OR - I could sit there with my flashing lights flashing and PROTECT a woman who was very peeved at me from getting in to a serious accident.   She put her head out the window and yelled something at me.  I think it was,  "MOVE!!!"  

I WOULD NOT MOVE!  SHE WOULD NOT MOVE.  SHE WOULD NOT MOVE.   SHE KEPT YELLING AT ME.   After a few moments,  I got out of my car, walked over to her car.  She reluctantly rolled down her window and I said to her, "You're going in the wrong direction.  I'm keeping my car in front of yours to keep you from getting hit by another car.  You have to back up and get over there!"  I pointed to the lanes on the OTHER side of the divider.  

I saw her see the light.  After backing up and hitting the curb four or five times she made it over to the opposite side and pulled away.   She was STILL rude and annoyed at me.  She DID NOT say "Thank you".  She DID NOT appreciate that even though she was a complete stranger, I saved her life that day. 

She was still annoyed that she was wrong and I was right.  Exactly.   The same thing happens on a pretty regular basis concerning spiritual matters.  Some people get annoyed at people who tell them they are going in the wrong direction. This woman reminded me of a very dear friend of mine who INSISTED on destroying her marriage, her family and NOW her own life.   I guess some people would rather die than be wrong.  Go figure.
 

The weather is really warm in Tennessee.   Last week we turned the air conditioning on for a few days.  The weather is really cold in Tennessee.  Last week we turned the heat on for a few days.   The weather in Tennessee is kinda moody this year.  Just a weather update. 

I refuse to have call waiting.  Call waiting was invented by the Anti-Christ, whoever he is.  Call waiting says to the person you are speaking to, "I know I'm talking to you right now and that's ok.  But somebody more important than you might call me and I cannot take the chance that I will miss THE IMPORTANT CALL because I'm wasting my time talking to a loser like you!!".   I choose to honor the person I'm speaking to.  So if you call my home, and I'm on the phone, you'll get a message, Phil speaking, saying, "Hi. We're on the phone now.  Leave a message and we'll call you back!".   Of course, this is a source of great resentment on the part of many people who choose to call me because someone beat them to the punch and is getting the GREAT reward of speaking to me. 

My close friends and many of my editors also know my cell phone number.  If they can't get me at home, BOOM, the cell phone rings.   My cell phone HAS call waiting.  But, that's because I don't want to ever miss a call from my family members... my parents are aging... etc.  However, even at that, it's a rare instance when I have someone hang on while I answer the OTHER CALL!!!  Because there is nothing as ANNOYING as being Caller #1 who has to hold on while Caller #2 takes priority.  After having me hold on for an eternity,  I always expect the person I was talking to to come back with some sort of an apology for expecting me to hold on... or at least some EMERGENCY.....  Like,  "Oh sorry to keep you holding for three mintues,but my next-door neighbor called to tell me my house is on fire and I had to let her know where the front door key is so that she can go in and rescue my dog!  Sorry for making you hold on !! ".  Nope.  No such luck.  Instead, it's usually something like,  "Oh, that was my next door neighbor telling me that four weeks from next Tuesday there's going to be a yard sale in Outer Mongolia ".  SO?  WHAT???  Something really important that couldn't wait... so I had to.  (This is almost as annoying as waiting to check out at a department store, and someone calls that department on the phone, and I - the customer who made the effort to GET IN THE CAR and DRIVE TO THE STORE and is standing there with MONEY, ready to PAY - has to wait while the salesclerk takes care of the person on the phone rather than the person IN THE STORE!!! ) 

Getting back to call waiting/answering machines...   I remember,  like a 100 years ago when I was a little girl...people lived with the most ADVERSE COMMUNICATION COMPLICATIONS.   I remember... hold on now.. when there was no such thing as an answering machine OR call waiting.   Yes... I recall that if you called someone and they weren't home... you had to call back.  Plain and simple.  Your goal was thwarted.  You message unspoken.  No answer/No message.   Nowadays, this is simply UNACCEPTABLE. 

AND there used to be something called a "Busy Signal".   If the person you were calling was already talking to someone else... TOUGH LUCK.. you got a busy signal.  And you had to REMEMBER to call back later.  Nowadays, if someone can't get me at home, they leave a message.  My family, friends,and editors will try my cell phone.  If they can't get me on my cell phone, they leave a message.  Some of them will then TYPE me a TEXT message saying.. "Where are you... I just left you a voice mail!.".  If they can't get me on my home phone, my cell phone, or a text message, they'll send an email.  People who don't know me can find me on the Internet, and they can call YET ANOTHER PHONE NUMBER to find me.

 My question to all of us is: What is it that we all have to say that is so important that we panic when we cannot say it?   Years ago, people didn't come home to 32 messages on their answering machine, 47 emails, and 98 text messages.   We were all a bunch of calmer people.... We had actual moments in our days when we weren't talking to.. or listening to... anyone.   We didn't even have blogs back then.   Yup... you wait.  You'll see.   The day the Anti-Christ takes over,  he's going to require everyone in the world to have call waiting.... and he's going to make it ILLEGAL to have an unlisted phone number.   This is the way he will conquer humanity.   You'll see. 

"Seriously???"....is what my three year old granddaughter said to me the other day in response to something I said to her.   And she used the word in context, like as in,  "Are you serious, Mema?  That can't possibly be true, Mema.  Are you sure, Mema?. SERIOUSLY???".  (Of course, she is a perfect genius child.. as are my other two grandchildren... Of course.)  She looked at me like a little teenager... and she's only 3.   I laughed at the fact that she is seriously questioning someone who is seriously smarter than she is.

Sorta like I do to Jesus.  He says,  "Take no thought for tomorrow.  Do not worry about tomorrow." and I read His words, and in my heart I think, "Seriously?"  As if! ( to use a 90's phrase).  As if I know better than He does.  So I just figure that He couldn't be serious in His advice about just living for this day, being thankful that I always have everything I need for THIS day.   I ignore Him and His advice and  I waste minutes, hours, days, weeks and months thinking,  "What if.......... I don't have enough this.. or that?"  "What if.........this happens?  or that happens."... 

So I worry about tomorrow.. and when tomorrow comes, He is faithful and merciful.   Every tomorrow becomes a today.  And every today becomes a day that  I can rejoice and be glad in. His mercy is renewed DAILY.    And every single day, every single day, God is there and faithful. And every tomorrow eventually becomes a yesterday.  And looking back on all those yesterdays that God showed Himself faithful to me should be proof enough that when Jesus tells me not to worry about tomorrow, He means what He says.   SERIOUSLY???   Seriously.