December 2014 – Meagan Louise

To The Guy at The Morning Owl Cafe,

I need to apologize to you. When I visited the other day, my friend and I shared how we had met through our church and you made the comment that you “can’t go near a church, or you would catch on fire or get struck with lightening.”

My response to you was not what it should have been, it was not what I want it to be. And it is gnawing at me and sitting on my chest like a brick. I’m thinking about coming back to you, to say these things. I’m not sure I even remember what you look like (remembering faces is not really my thing…). But I’m going to write these down. And hopefully you see them or someone sends them to you or we see each other again and I won’t make the same mistake twice.

When you said that, my instant concern was not you, it was me. I was weird and totally self-centered. I wanted you to see me as a cool, casual church girl because I have this weird phobia that everyone thinks people who go to church are weird and out of touch with reality. So I get weird, and I take it from phobia to fact.

I’m sorry.

What I SHOULD have said is that there is nothing in your past, present, or future that could keep you from Jesus. Why? Because he already knows (even the stuff NOBODY ELSE KNOWS) and he’s still fighting for you. Maybe me showing up and mentioning church to you was a tiny whisper reminding you that those places still exist and I was supposed to ask you to come. Maybe Jesus was bringing the church to you, and I failed in letting him.

I should have told you that, in fact, the reason you’re scared to meet with Jesus is the very reason he wants to meet with you. If you read about Jesus, he never spent his time with perfect people (fun fact: there aren’t any) and he totally slammed the people who tried to act like they were. He said, “the broken, the lost, the wandering…those are MY people…” (I’m paraphrasing here.)

That’s me. And that’s you.

I should have said, “Well shouldn’t that be the case with all of us? None of us deserve what Jesus is offering, but that’s the beauty. We’re all just a bunch of broken people who follow Jesus because he loves us. I wouldn’t be worried about catching on fire…unless you go to a Christmas Eve candlelight service, then be very skeptical and don’t use hairspray.”

So, guy at the Morning Owl Cafe, Jesus loves you. He freaking DIED for you. That will never change, and how he feels about you will never change. I hope you give this church thing, this God thing, a chance. Because he’s pretty great (severe understatement but I’m still trying to be a little cool) he’s kinda crazy about you.

Sincerely,

Girl who ordered a hot chocolate

P.S. Thank you for offering to serve it to me at a kids temperature. That was really nice. And totally unnecessary. (Slash please keep doing that…)

I had no idea what to expect when we pulled up to the Grand Canyon. I knew my grandmother had visited many times, and LOVED the Grand Canyon, going back many times over the years. I knew that it was supposed to be a phenomenal view. But no picture, no video, no story can prepare you for the sight you actually see.

It. Is. Breathtaking.

We didn’t actually pull into our campground until well into the night, so we had no idea what we were waking up to. Turned out that our camping spot was literally just a concrete extension of the road right in front of the bathrooms. Gross, but convenient.

We all put on way too serious hiking outfits for the concrete trails we would be walking. But hey, we were ready for anything.

Basically, we just stopped and stared a lot. There was a ledge that peeked out over the edge, and made for some great photo ops. Here’s Danny, snapping some shots of the Jobes. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY WE WERE OKAY WITH THIS.

But we all lived to tell the tale. And of course, the only person to be busted by the ranger, was Andy Jobe. 🙂

After sight-seeing around the South Rim, we took our rickety RV over to the North Rim and up some very rugged not-made-for-an-RV-roads. It was deafening and terrifying and awesome. I’m not sure if we were frightened or entertained or some strange concoction of both, but if you would have told us that wouldn’t be the roughest trail of our trip, I don’t think we would have believed you.

When we finally found a site, it was SO TOTALLY WORTH IT. We happened upon this clearing, surrounded by a half-circle of tall Ponderosa Pines and a smattering of other trees and plants. We were so far out, the stars were incredible. I mean, I have NEVER seen stars like that before. If it wasn’t 25 degrees out, I could have stayed out there all night. And I saw my first shooting star! It was a dream.

We woke up before dawn so we could catch the sunrise over the North Rim. We almost missed it, we couldn’t find our way out of the woods to get to an edge. Eventually, as the sun started to peek, we just pulled over and walked to the nearest overhang.

As the sun rose, more and more of the Grand Canyon became visible. It was like every minute that passed presented a new sight to see. I felt so in awe of the creation that was before me.

Can I just build a cabin and stay here?

Month: December 2014

To The Guy at The Morning Owl Cafe

A Journey West – Grand Canyon