When Bad turns good.

So, today i got up and headed to the gym.

I pulled out my ipod, somehow it had not charged and the battery was dead.

I attempted to turn on the TV, managed to turn someone else's off and abandoned that activity also.

I finally GOT ON the treadmill and found that i was on a treadmill that was convinced that the metric system was far superior and found I had to convert my weight to KG and my speed per mile to Kilometers and then of course convert my kilometerage into mileage. My brain hurt a bit.

And then.

A friend turned on my television (and even asked me what channel i would like)

A neighbor laughed with me about my math skills and conversion rates

I managed to NOT fall off the machine...

Sometimes it is the community that makes the experience so complete. It takes living outside of our individual bubble of music/noise/insular distraction to welcome that in.

Not about WHO we know, but by WHOM we are known

I run (or try to) every morning. These runs take place, for the most part, on a treadmill in a gym. I attempt to divert my attention from the slow digital clock of how far and how long i have been running by watching TV. And every so often I see Erin Burnette. And she makes me smile! You see Erin and I went to high school together. A tiny school in Delaware and now I am running on a treadmill and she is on NBC. It makes me soooo proud to see her on the TV. I usually take a moment and say to my neighbor (who is usually sweating to the oldies in their own cloud of unknowning)- THAT'S ERIN!!!! They usually nod and keep on sweating to the oldies. It just makes me soooo proud to see where she is and what she has done with her gifts and talents.

In our middler year we have launched into our readings of Paul. Or perhaps i should say we have launched into readings about Paul (In true anglican fashion we have to read about him first!) and one of the things that I keep hearing as a chorus is that "we are of christ, not of other apostles." What if I had the same amount of joy and pride with saying, "wow, look at God at work in her." Do we give God the glory? I do find joy in the Christ I see in others, the joy of seeing God's pleasure in God's creation. What a good and joyful thing INDEED it is. And i do think Erin Burnette uses her gifts and talents pretty well!