once upon a time, on april 4, i drove from birmingham to atlanta. when it came time to turn in for the night, i took residence on ragamuffin soul’s and whittaker woman’s couch.

i went into a back room to call my beloved husband, turned on the light, and saw this.

ummm….?

maybe i am exaggerating a bit, but given a little wider tornado, or a little faster wind, the tornado that hit edmond, oklahoma last night could have been much worse, and many more of my friends could have been in danger.

chris and i live in downtown. we went to bed around 12:30 after it appeared the tornado-producing storms were weakening. an hour later, the sirens went off downtown. i jumped out of bed and turned on the tele.

the only rotation was in edmond, which is where my office is and two of the lifechurch.tv oklahoma city campuses reside. as well as most of my okc friends. like terry. and sunny. and john. and john. and aaron.

i heard on the news that power just went out to the west side of edmond where the storm was. my friends began twittering about the power loss from their phones.

since we were totally in the clear, chris and i stayed up and kept our friends informed of the weather.

tornado on the ground.

over broadway.

even though they were hiding in closets and basements, they could know exactly where the tornado was because of twitter.

and they could know when the coast was clear.

i know twitter is all about friends and fun and updates and random 140 character bits of life, but in situations like this, i wonder how powerful it will be…

what if twitter was around during 9-11? during bigger storms? hurricanes? earthquakes? blackouts?

i think twitter can save lives - and i think it will. (remember, read the tweets from the bottom up in order for them to make sense!)

i’ve been home sick today (not with infectious stomach parasites like some of my ugandan-travel-mates, rather what i have dubbed a “fire breathing demon baby” that has taken residence in my throat). i have left my bedroom once to get soup and that is it. no energy.

yet still needing to kind of function for a conference call at 4 pm today.

here’s what that looked like.

i can honestly say i have never had a conference call in sweats with a cat sleeping on me.

and i must be so overridden with ick that i am actually posting that photo….? with no makeup? eek.

anyway…

i’ve been playing around on twitter a lot today. so…if you tweet, add me!

we live downtown, and there are several old churches…most have bells.

every sunday morning around noon, one starts to chime. it’s lovely. you can sometimes make out the melody of old hymns.

a few minutes later, another church’s bell starts ringing. another old hymn.

the problem? they’re ringing at the same time.

two beautiful bells.

two beautiful hymns.

one giant mess.

stuff like this reminds me of the importance of unity - celebrating our differences in love and humble respect.

more oft’ than not, we just like doing our own thing aggressively, loudly, clanging…one layer of belief on top of another on top of another, trying to be the loudest so our particular voice can be heard.

the dissonance is tragic…

i will never forget the first time i met gina. i don’t think i even caught a good look at her face. i was visiting the okc campus over the summer, meeting some people, and this lady comes up to me, gives me a big fat hug, and says something along the lines of, “hi anne i’m gina i’m so glad you’re here and that we can finally meet how was your trip are you having fun i hate to run but i have a kazillion kids i need to show jesus to see you later i’ll email you sometime bye!”

whoosh. she was gone.

gina is the lifekids director at the okc campus. she LOVES kids. passionately. she was kind enough to do a guest blog for flowerdust, but if you really want a good look into her heart, read here.

gina writes,

I like puzzles.

Mostly the small ones. 150 pieces or less. None of those funky 3D ones that require a set of blueprints and permits to construct.

The process of connecting the individual pieces to create the bigger picture engages me. You begin with a few pieces that fit together. The picture they create may not make sense. But as you add to it, one piece at a time… it starts to click.

I’m in the midst of a puzzle right now. I have a glimpse of the bigger picture. I’ve got an idea of the end product. But right now I only have a few pieces. Though these pieces fit together, the picture they create doesn’t make sense. It’s clearly incomplete.

In my anxiousness, I want to go in search of the additional pieces I need to complete the picture. But I can’t do that. I’ve got too many battle scars from stupid moves like that. Experience reminds me that this isn’t my picture I’m attempting to piece together. But rather I’m just one of the pieces that fit within a picture God is creating.

Where are you? Attempting to put the puzzle together yourself… or patiently waiting for the Creator of the puzzle to put you in place?

i love this girl. seriously. she is amazing and bright and beautiful and just amazing. did i say that already? well, she deserves it to be said twice.

libby works in our hilarious finance office (you would be shocked at what really goes on in there!!) and, did i say she is amazing? her blog is here. you know where to leave her love.

she writes -

Bigger Body Image

I struggle with ‘body image’. I have for a while now and this is definitely one of the main areas He has been working. My personal ‘body image’ has greatly improved recently and is much healthier and closer to His image. Thanks to Him, His breaking, and His Spirit. But lately God has been telling me ‘think bigger’ . . . ‘What?!? I don’t want to be bigger!’ J . . . ‘No, eternally bigger.’

That one always gets me – that ‘quit thinking about you, think about Him’ realization. So I started thinking about the organization of LifeChurch.tv. The way it functions. Its structure, purposes, goals, and staff. I really have a passion for it - the organizational body. . . . ‘Eternally Bigger!!!’ ‘Biggest!!’

‘Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it . . .’ I Corinthians 12:27

Gut check! I wonder what kind of impact we all could make if we focused together being the Body of Christ.

‘ . . . And now I will show you the most excellent way.’ I Corinthians 12:31

What body gets most of your focus?