Lightbulb moments.

Alot of people ask me, "is your job super stressful?' I always answer the same.. the only time I am stressed is when I bring it upon myself. People don't stress me out, tasks stress me out. I have just recently realized that in order to stay relaxed I live from one "lightbulb moment" to the next. A "lightbulb moment" is a little glimpse of success in everyday ministry. It's an alcoholic coming to an AA meeting for the first time, a little street kid memorizing John 3:16 or a prostitute knocking on the door to ask for prayer. The stressful times like fist fights, gang drama and drug dealers don't stress me out... because I live from lightbulb moment to lightbulb moment.

This weekend I experienced one of those moments....

Since the holiday season is fastly approaching, I am in pure christmas decor mode. But, I ran into a road block this past week. I have not a clue how to hang Christmas lights. I am a new home owner and growing up outdoor lights were not one of my chores. My dad and brother always did the outdoor stuff, the girls did the indoor stuff. So when I noticed my neighbors putting up their lights I rushed to my local Home Depot to join in the fun. I had a feeling putting up the lights by myself would be a disaster so I enlisted the help of two Rock Island boys. I made an assumption that because they were boys and mexicans they could put up christmas lights. (Mexicans use xmas lights year around!) So yesterday we made a valliant attempt...after 6 hours and another trip to Lowes... it got dark and we gave up. But that's not the good part...

After the boys spent so long trying, I felt bad and offered to take them to dinner along with two RI girls that had a slumber party at my house last night. One of the boys is very hard to get to know. The only time I have ever heard him speak is if he is one on one with me and no one else is around. When he does talk it is very quiet and in broken english. I have known him for about 5 years and have never heard him pray out loud, say anything about God or prayer, or pay attention during bible studies or church. He seems completely uninterested in the whole God thing. We'll call him D. They decided they wanted RibCrib. So we sat down and ordered. They were all kind of hyper and loud and we were just having a good time. When the food arrived we all started digging in.... and then I heard a mumble in my direction "Can we pray?".... I thought I misunderstood the boy so I asked again. And D said loudly "CAN WE PRAY?" Everyone stopped and stared.. we bowed our heads right there and prayed together. During the prayer I got a little choked up. I began to thank God for each one of them and the young men and women of God they are becoming. I was like a proud mother sitting there with them.

Not that we don't have our dark moments at Rock Island... we do! BUT... every so often we have a lightbulb moment that seems to light the path a little until the next moment comes along.