Donuts and spilt coffee

Ever had one of those mornings?

Blue Belle ice cream is gone. Just gone. Done in by something I've never heard of till now, something called Listeria. Gone. Out of site, but not out of mind and certainly not out of stomach.

I was drinking coffee at home, one of the cats spooked for some reason (do we ever, ever know what they are thinking?) and ran straight toward me at the kitchen table, sliding on a notebook, forcing my coffee cup to shoot straight at me, dousing my I-Pad and me and the floor with coffee.

I was out of coffee for the office (a must) so I stopped at Winn Dixie. While there, because I'm sleepy as all get out, I bought some of those sugar covered donuts, which I haven't had in like forever. I dropped the second one on my dark blue shirt and can't get the sugar off it to save my life (or the shirt)

When I put the coffee pot under the coffee making thingee, I didn't put it all the way in, forcing a build up of coffee. When I noticed it, coffee grounds came shooting into the urn itself.

One of those mornings?

Then I hear a song from a band that actually played at a church I was at years ago called Mike's Chair.  It's called Know you are there.

The writer says, "God I'm desperate for a sign
that I'm not praying to the night sky
Let me know I'm not alone
That you will never let me go
'Cause everything I've held on to is slipping away
When my world is crashing down
left in pieces on the ground
I will stand knowing you are here with me
with my hands reaching for the sky
I can feel you holding tight
I'm stepping out on water knowing you are
Here with me

What wonderful thoughts. What wonderful ideas. What honesty.

This notion that everything is wonderful for all Christians all the time is simply not true. Anyone believing that has been deceived. Anyone needing to hear that to believe needs strengthen.

Years ago, 10 this year in fact, a little thing called Katrina happened and our lives changed forever. If not for Katrina, who knows, I might still be a part-time local pastor and still be serving my home church in Gretna, La. We might have lived all these years close to our children and grand children.

But it didn't happen that way. Katrina jump-started everything and for 10 long years, we've been on the move, having to pack five times in 10 years, three times in the past three. I've gotten into a routine of boxes, packing, counting out essentials and leaving them unpacked till the last day, etc., etc.

And through it all I believe in God's direction and purpose.

It is not always easy. There are times I feel I'm praying to the night sky, and times I feel absolutely alone. There are times when I wonder just what all this is for.

Then a song comes on the I-Pad, a person speaks just the right thing, my wife bops me on the head, I play with a dog or even see the humor in a cat spilling my morning coffee.

And I know he is there, laughing with me, not at me.

That is true love, you know.

He loves us for who we are, doubts and questions and the occasional answer. He won't leave us there with those doubts and questions and the occasional answer, though. He sings, dances, when we come to him with those doubts and questions, though.

And on occasion, a donut to the shirt might just wake us up.