Strange Week

This week started off as usual- on a Monday. I went to the office with Topher as usual. Chris had court that morning which is the only reason I brought Topher with me. Since it is tax season, the office has become an increasingly more not-baby-friendly area, which makes perfectly good sense. Then Chris' day finished early so I drove Topher home and came back to work for a few more hours. One of the headlines on YahooNews was about the NFL players that were missing from their fishing trip. This seemed sad enough, but not at all related to me or my life, so I just heard about the news and went on with my day.
Then I got a call from one of my friends asking me to pray for our other friend who had just hopped on a plane to Florida because one of the missing men was our other girlfriend's best friend. Small world. All of a sudden I couldn't get enough of YahooNews and this insane tale about missing men who were less than six degrees removed from me and my life!
That story very unfortunately did not have a happy ending as most of us know. And it makes us think about the fragility of life and how we are absolutely not in control of anything.
Then today happened. We just finished '40 Days of Purpose' at our church. And to celebrate we were going to be having baptisms at every service (we have 4 services). Sign ups started two weeks ago or so. By Friday, I believe the count was up to about 400 people. FOUR HUNDRED people wanted to get baptized at our church THIS WEEKEND. That is mind-blowing and amazing! Well, apparently right before the baptisms were about to begin at our Saturday Night service- one of our elders died. Right in the middle of the service. Insane is the only word I can think of right now.
Obviously when a Christian dies, it's only sad for those the follower leaves behind. Cause the believer is going home to be with Jesus. Which is pretty awesome. But man oh man. What a way to leave and be called back home. He was sitting beside his wife and one of his many sons. Dang. For some reason I have thought a bunch about what is worse- having your husband die beside you, or your dad. Neither one is a pleasant thought. And there isn't one that's better than the other.
So what's going on here? Spiritual attack to be sure. This elder's daughter happens to be a missionary, and is presently in Africa on a vision trip. She is on the long, long road home as we speak. She was supposed to be there for about six weeks, so her trip is about four weeks shorter than planned.
So, for those of you out there who are reading this and are into the whole 'praying thing', please say a prayer or fifty for this elder and his family. And for those of youwho are reading this and are into the whole 'not taking a single day for granted thing', please keep on keeping on. And for those out there who don't do either, might I suggest taking both 'things' up.