Debra in her happy place

Hospitality & Beauty.  The smile on Debra’s face is priceless.  This photograph reminds me of a photo of Debra as a four-year old. The photograph captures a little girl ecstatic with intense joy—her wide smile, her focused eyes, her clinched fists, convey a feeling that this girl is about to explode with happiness. The picture above captures that same visage of absolute joy.  I’m thankful Kevin Lloyd captured this shot of Debra putting the final touches on our Friendsgiving Feast.  She is truly in her happy place.  Nothing makes my wife happier than when she is able to bless our guests with comfortable hospitality and the beauty of everyday life.  We worship a God of Hospitality & Beauty and any opportunity to share a glimpse of what we imagine eternal life with Him and each other will be like is an opportunity we have to take.  Debra wants to share it so much she’s about to explode.

I'm grateful for my traveling partner

I am grateful for my traveling partner.  What a blessing it is to have someone to travel through life with.  I have now been married longer than I have been single, and I am more “Us” than solitary “Me.”  Life is not easy, and marriage itself is one of life’s challenges, but I can’t imagine going through this life without my wife at my side.  Debra has endured the early years of my becoming an architect, the financial challenges, the lay-off in our first year of marriage, the many career moves, the legal battles, my vocational confusion, my intense mood swings….all the ups and downs of my becoming an adult.  Now we find ourselves traveling into the adventure at 303 Navasota.  We have journeyed through another house renovation and are about to start a new building project.  We are continuing to build two sons into men, and today we celebrate Jude’s twenty-first birthday.  We are meeting new friends and building new relationships with those who live around us.  Through it all I’m grateful to have a friend to travel with these thirty years.

Our first Friendsgiving

I am grateful for our first Friendsgiving at Lazarus House.  A dream come true.  This is one of the reasons we purchased this property.  We wanted a place big enough for feasting….but small enough to fit into our budget. Lazarus house is only 964 square feet; therefore, with such a small house we had to edit down to only that which is absolutely essential. We created one big room to cook, feast and live in. I’m happy to report it performed very well — design goal achieved! We had twenty plus folks inside and outside.  It was potluck style and there was no shortage of wonderful food and fix’ns.  This is the second Friendsgiving we have helped host, but the first one at our house.  It felt so good to have a place to welcome not just our friends, but our neighbors as well.  Many of our neighbors didn’t come. Perhaps in this age of virtual meetings, social media and texting instead of talking an embodied meeting with your neighbors is a little too personal. Hopefully in time they will feel comfortable to join us.  Having people in our homes is a wonderful way to get past our social barriers and political divides.  In time my hope is that our little cluster of households in Central East Austin will learn to feast together and celebrate the simple fact that we are neighbors.

From the season of hell to the season of heaven

I am grateful for seasons.  As a native Texan I have never experienced the marking of the seasons like we enjoyed in the small towns west for Chicago.  We saw an absolutely beautiful display of color and variety.  Chicagoland enjoys all four seasons-fall, winter, spring and summer.  Texas only has two seasons—heaven and hell.  The season between the end of October into the beginning of April is absolutely heavenly, and makes me understand why so many people want to move here. Unfortunately, this season quickly changes into the hellish time of the Texan summer. Now as we enter the fall-winter-spring of Texas (a.k.a. heaven) I am reminded why I live here.  There is something about that first breath of cool, dry fall air that completely rejuvenates me. Just about the time I think I can’t take the heat any longer, God seems to drop an amuse-bouche on us and we remember there is hope.  This foretaste doesn’t last long, but it’s enough of a break in the heat to help us remember, summer will end and heavenly days are just around the corner.

Grateful for artists

I am grateful for artists.  Today Lazarus House hosted artist Glenn Gauthier, his lovely wife Stacy, and our mutual friends Ben & Emily Padula. They were in town for the annual East Austin Studio Tour —a.k.a. EAST.  We wanted to gauge Glenn’s interest in taking some of the scraps of wallpaper we uncovered as we renovated Lazarus House.  We hope he’s interested because he seems like the perfect artist to capture the history and beauty from the previous life of our home.  Whether he accepts the commission or not, it was wonderful to hang out with Glenn.  On one hand it was good to speak with another fellow human who struggles to make the world a better place.  On the other hand it was a privilege to speak with and honor one of the world’s artists.  How ugly and dull would our world be without artists.  Thank God for people like Glenn who discipline their time to produce their art.  It’s not easy.  It’s not lucrative.  But they do it anyways.  Day in and day out they cut, draw, paint, sing, weld, polish, engaging in all sorts of skills to bring their gift to the world.

A Big Table

I am grateful for big tables.  We inaugurated our Navasota redevelopment project with a gathering of friends from our small group back in 2021 during a break in the COVID pandemic.  It was a wonderful evening. Yesterday I was excited to hear about Big Table.  It’s a ministry to the workers in the hospitality and service industry.  They have a long portable table that seats 48 people.  Big Table provides a seven course chef dinner to the servers who normally serve others. People are referred to Big Table and gifted with the incredible experience — no strings attached — just one incredible meal.  Jesus said it is more blessed to give than receive, and a big table blesses us with an opportunity to give, the opportunity to receive, and when the food and wine is flowing it’s hard to separate who’s giving and who’s receiving.  That’s how it should be. That is our faith.  Someday we will be feasting forever at the wedding feast of the Lamb sitting at one incredibly big table!

Tub Time is back!

Tub time!  The home we left to move into Lazarus House had a wonderful tub and for over two years I have not been able to do my morning studies in the “Liquid Library” I cherished so much. But today Tub Time was back!  We have a wonderful tub that fits me perfectly and has arm rests for Debra.  However, after moving in we have not been able to really enjoy soaking because the water was only luke warm. Yesterday our plumber came out and removed the limiter that was preventing it from getting hot.  After a long soak in water and prayer and being washed with water and the word, I emerged with prunny skin and a long awaited grin.