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A not-so-brief aside

Sophie - February 9, 2009

I have to tell y'all this story.

And this still isn't my "official" Going Beyond recap, but it's definitely a part of the weekend that continues to blow my mind when I think about it.

Saturday morning we were almost finished with the first session when my phone started to vibrate. I looked down at it, saw that my friend Elise was calling, and since she'd also called the night before, I sent her a quick text: "Hey. In Atlanta at a LifeWay deal. What's up?"

She wrote me back, told me what was going on, and after a few more texts, we'd managed to make plans for an upcoming weekend when she and one of her sons are going to be visiting Birmingham.

And just so you know, I did all of this texting without missing a beat of Priscilla Shirer's message. Seriously. I promise. 'Cause I learned a whole bunch from Miss Priscilla Saturday morning.

Anyway, the morning break came shortly after Elise and I wrapped up our conversation, and I started to think about how happy it made me to hear from Elise and how grateful I am for friendships that now span the course of twenty years. Last weekend I got to spend some time with some high school friends, and my word - is there anything better than people who have seen you fall flat on your face a time or twenty and who love you anyway? I'm beyond grateful for those girls.

As I walked around during the break I was trying to figure out how my surge of gratitude for my friends might be tied in to Priscilla's message (that's me. always looking for connections. it would be totally exhausting if I didn't find it so completely delightful.) and I found myself thinking over and over again about the blessing of friendship - even when that friendship shows up in the form of an unexpected phone call.

A few minutes later I caught a glimpse of a woman who looked super familiar, and even though part of my brain thought, "NO WAY would she have driven al the way from Hattiesburg, Mississippi for this conference," the other part of my brain wanted to turn around and double-check. So I did.

And when I turned around, do y'all know who I saw?

ELISE'S MAMA.

CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE THAT?

We squealed like a couple of five year-olds.

We got to visit and catch up during the break, and it was just the sweetest, most unexpected blessing in the midst of an already incredible weekend. It tickled me to no end.

And I just thought I'd share that today.

The end.

Category: Events