tyler perry and his alter personality madea

i love tyler perry. if you don't know who he is maybe you've heard of diary of a mad black woman but if you haven't heard of that maybe you've seen in your local blockbuster madea's family reunion and all of the others.

well he came to grand rapids (which in of itself is a far stretch for our normally pretty light and dutch community). tyler is an amazing actor, writer, and follower of god. if you've never watched one of his plays i would recommend it. each one has a message and is sounded in truth about god. they are real and nearly everyone in the audience can relate on some level.

what i loved most was simply laughing for 2 1/2 hours straight. trying to figure out if my throat was sore because i laughed so loud for so long or if it was from the bruit cologne (if i can call it that) that the man next to me was wearing. regarless it is nearly midnight and i can't stop laughing yet. i keep thinking of all the great one-liners given tonight and will be waiting the best i can to see the next tyler perry production.

sometimes just being heard is enough

i met with denise vanek from mars hill today. i don't know what i expected but i knew from the first time that i met her that i liked her. i felt like i could trust her and that i would be safe.

for the last 2 years i've struggled with church. church as an institution, church as a building, and church as an unhappy place. last summer i even went so far as to leave the church (well i withdrew my membership) but i still went there and prayed that god would show me a church that would make me happy. in the year and a half since then no one from the church ever called, ever wrote, and possibly didn't even care. well that is what i thought at least until today.

i told denise my story, my concerns, and my questions. she didn't try to answer them but she did listen. she didn't offer any excuses but an apology. she gave me exactly what i needed. she gave me herself for the time that we were together. she gave me hope. she also gave me encouragement.

i can't assume that the questions are gone but the restlessness in my heart is somehow soothed.

i can't believe i can see again

i've been wearing glasses ever since the 2nd grade. but, as if that isn't bad enough for a kid i went into bi-focals in the 4th grade and had them ever sine. over the last year or so i've noticed that my glasses really haven't been working (or at least as well as i thought they should). so i decided to go this week and have my eyes checked and found out i don't even need bi-focals anymore.

now this was the most amazing news i had in a long time. then of course he gave me the bad news. while my reading vision was great for the first time in 20 years my distant vision basically sucks. the whole not being able to read street signs at night was finally making sense.

i of course was thrilled to have an excuse to get new glass and found these great red funky little things that are totally me. well i was able to pick them up today and love them. not only do they actually look okay on me i really can see. i drove all over just to look at street signs and then went back out once it was dark to see if they still did, and they do. i can't believe the modern miracle of glasses.