I spent last night with Noelle. AMAZING. oh, how I adore that girl. Here's how it went.
It had rained (surprise? I think not) so we didn't want to sit on the porch, so we decided to go to Starbucks at the top of Queen Anne and get tea/chair. I got a London Fog and the girl even knew what it was so I didn't have to explain it and feel like a freak (as I had in the SUB when Tiffany just stared at me). So after we got my London Fog and her Chai we walked up and down the stree, past the bright lights of Safeway and around the men sitting outside Cafe Ladro on the adirondacks. It was so much fun. Just up and down, up and down.
We first (after Traci) talked about our life plans. Noelle is going to make a show that will end up on PBS about animals, because she is so obsessed with animal planet. Jen will be in on this too and will be the steady more normalish person while Noelle will draw in the crazies. Okay, so this show will make them multi millionaires, at which point Noelle will travel around and do missionary work. She won't even have to raise support becuase she will be living off the PBS show's money. (She may pass this down to someone or just do reruns, we couldn't decide.)
She meets a husband of course, they get married at about 27, we thought that was a nice round number. She has SIX kids, not even with Csections, my oh my is she brave. They will travel around the world as a family learnign to love and take care of each other, but also being crazy, because you have to be crazy and have fun if you're going to be in Nole's family. The kids will be great, well rounded, cultured, love Jesus, everything. And then she's going to be an amazing grandmoether, etc...
ME! Mine is less specific. I am going to the Middle East after graduation. I am going to preach the gospel, love, truth, beauty, and of course will be thrown in jail. But that is where the story begins. (laughter) I am going to write a book while in prison, it will be about love, joy, peace, reconciliation, all that is good in the world (and of course, Jesus too). This book will be written on scraps of toilet paper and the inside of my clothing (wouldn't want to make the guards suspicious). Of course, it will win a Pulitzer Prize, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. One day, the guards will be angry anyway, probably because I keep trying to convert them. They'll come in and start beating me. But in the midst of my crying out "Jesus, save me!" there will be a clamor fromt he cell across the hall. Someone is shouting for them to have mercy, to torture him in my place.
You've guessed it. We meet through the bars in this subterranean prison, fall desperately in love and promise to marry the day we are released. And we
will be released, because by this point, Noelle will be a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and she is out there doing advocacy for us. We get out, get married in our rags by the nearest preacher or rabbi or even Noelle herself. (I don't think it would count if an Imam did it...) We'll have FIVE kids, hopefully a pair of which will be twins. AH! I'm so excited. We'll move to Latin America and love the people and do great things in the Name and Glory of GOD.
Can life get better? And just think! Everyone will want to come to SPU after that. Jen will attract the normal ones, I'll get the Bible Thumping Zealots and Noelle will make the crazies salivate over our little college at the bottom of Queen Anne Hill.
Okay, the night gets better.
We sit in Noelle's car and she is telling me what she is learning about God. AHHHHHH. So exciting, I am practically shaking and going mad with joy and excitement. Okay, here is what God has done. Clark is really anti God and church and thinks we are all fools for believing in it. Anyway, he came to visit over homecoming weekend, and Noelle asked him to go to Mars Hill with her on Sunday. The parentals were coming, all that, and she told him she didn't want to pressure him or make him do something he didn't want to, but this is a part of her life and family weekend is about sharing in your sister's life. So he went. And Noelle is just praying,
Oh God, I don't know how. But please, please let it speak to Clark. Please let Mark say someonthing you did it for me, please do it for him.Mark taught about Christianity in business.
Clark is getting ready to take over his dad's business.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Jesus, you are SO amazing. I can't even get over it!!!!!!!!!!!! Noelle said that so much of what he talked baout was Clark, Clark, Clark, Listen up kiddo! He talked about money, and how we shouldn't work just to earn money and get rich--totally opposite of Clark. And Mark talked about being wise, and shrewd, but not taking advantage of others. He talked about hard work and so much more. Oh, GOD YOU ARE SO AMAZING.
Clark told Noelle after the service that he wished he lived in Seattle so he could go to Mars Hill. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you kjnow what a jump that is for him? Noelle's entire family is ust discovering God. It made me want to jump up and down and scream and shout praises to God. He is so incredible. He loves us and he just wants to be with us and draw us to him. He is GREAT.
We talked about other things, like people who don't believe and what happens to them. Also people who never hear that name of Jesus. And we talked about, oh everything! I told her that sometimes I want to run and shout and sing for God, but I can't do that in a dorm. Well, NOelle is crazy, as has already been mentioned. So we decided that sometime I am going to come down to Emerson and we are just going to run through the halls yelling about Jesus, and brusting into song as the Spirit leads. OH my word, I am so excited.
She also tlaked about how some people just don't take it seriously. (There are a lot of people like that here.) She said that if Christians really love God and that is really what they are all about there should be something different. Like with Nick, and then she said the most beautiful words to me. "You konw, like you. You are so full of life and joy, Sara Bibb. There is something different about you." AHHHHHHH. Jesus, no one has ever said that to me! I've always wondered if there really was something different about me, or if I was just the same as the world. But Noelle said I was different, am I'm full of joy!! God, I'm full of your JOY!
And then I was walking home, and it was starting to rain. (surprise?) I was walking along, kind of sorry for myself that I was missing our raid (though Noelle was SO beyond worth it) and sad that my hair was getting wet. (because I hadn't just showered a few hours before) Suddenly, I had this thought. Jesus rains down mercy on us, he showers us with love and grace. Just like the rain. I started dancing.
Dancing and laughing and singing and telling Jesus just how amazing he is. Because he is. Oh, he is. God, what can I even begin to say about you? I should have written down the psalm that was in my heart last night. But even that could not begin to describe the wonders of Glory, peace, grace, love, justice and everything else that is you and yet hardly begins to comprehend you. What glorious beauty it is to know you. I have decided that beauty is not just an idea, I can taste it, feel it, drink and sleep in it.
"I don't even understand it Sara Bibb. I'm not a good person. But when I pray for stuff like this, God always answers it. I just don't even get it."
(take it, love it, revel in it. It is her story, it is my story, it is your story, it is the story of God that we are all caught up in.)
