Hot Sauce

It’s hard to catch up after nearly a month of putting it off. You might think I would have learned something about that in college, yet here we are. It’s also hard to step far enough back from our life to see enough of it to lay it out flat. There are countless facets in our fairly solitary life that we don’t share with anyone, so it seems to me to be more filled with detail than substance. Tampa is the sun shining straight through our bedroom windows every morning and melting me straight into the sheets. It is the Narnian lampposts in our courtyard and the escalators inching down into the aisles at the two-story grocery store. It is the sound of our toilet running intermittently, broken, and the voice of Pam on the phone in the cubicle next to mine all day. It is the familiar faces of the panhandlers, stooped and sunburned on their usual corners.

On the inside:

The Lord is doing some serious boulder shifting in me. I am anxious for the day when the rocks start to give, even though it might mean that I have something tangible to say about it. I am tired of being friendless and restless. I miss standing on a floor without cracks, and am growing increasingly frustrated at this feeling of falling through. I’m not mad at Tampa, or at anyone. I am exhausted. This season is long and empty, and my sin is creeping out, loud in the silence. I am aware of my selfishness, greed, laziness, unwillingness to be known. I am repenting. I am finding more Grace for me and more Truth for my tantrum-prone heart. Jesus is calling me to eat with Him, and I am the only one in the room.

“I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners.” Mark 2:17

On the outside:

There are technically plenty of updates to satisfy any practical curiosity. Three weeks ago Kyle was promoted to Team Lead for our department. This really means that he handles the bombs that explode every day so that our supervisor can do other things; namely, assign him more tasks. I think officially he is responsible for a lot of details, team management, and communication between our department and IT. Contrary to common assumption, the promotion has not made him my boss. It has, however, dropped a few extra pennies into our pockets.

Soon after his promotion, Kyle and Stuart put together a proposal for a new operations process for the department, which they presented to the officers for approval. The new process will probably launch in the next few months. Feel free to give Kyle a call and congratulate him for being hot sauce. Or call me, and I will answer on my new company iPhone, which I weaseled my way into getting. I will let you talk to Kyle on it.