I’ve been dying to blog about this, but I keep forgetting to warn my friend Ryo (who reads this blog) that I’m going to tattle on him. Hopefully he’ll forgive me and get a good laugh out of this too.

So Keith just got back from Pasadena, and I had to endure three Sundays in a row without his wonderful assistance with the children (we’re still working on the kids church thing). No small feat. And two Sundays ago, it just so happened that it was also my day to cook for the entire church.

So picture it with me. It’s 95 degrees, the humidity is unreal. I’ve got like 50 pounds of barbecued brisket in three crockpots (and all the trimmings), 3 children still strapped in the air-conditioned car (one of whom is going through a bit of an impatient stage-Ben!), and the precise moment I get the last round of food upstairs,  someone asks me to move my car into a faraway and geometrically-challenged parking lot. No husband present. And I’m REALLY hot from shuttling all the food up the stairs. (“In these hot days, the mad blood stirreth…” Where’s that from lit-geeks?) Perhaps a little less than my normally-sweet self at that moment, I tell him he can move the car himself because I can’t park (or unpark) in that lot. Can’t! Really, I’ve tried! Makes me crazy-sweaty-nervous.

So finally I get all the food where it needs to be, kids where they need to be, and the service is about to start. The air conditioning has not yet been turned on in the sanctuary. Though I am actually not usually a SWEAT-er, I was definitely hot, and definitely sweating, and trying to prepare myself for worship, while dealing with the kids and feeling more than a little irritated about the parking situation. Feeling a bit of a hot mess this morning.

So then quite unexpectedly, our friend Ryo, who is also our church’s worship leader,  and is both Japanese and American, starts the service like this, in Japanese first, and then translates it himself into English (with a hint of trepidation in his voice the latter go-round):

“Good morning everyone! It’s really hot today! Lisa is sweating!”

And half the church looks back at me to make sure Lisa is really sweating. Indeed, she is!

Now, I COULD have been horrified at this, terribly embarrassed, but NO! Where’s the fun in that?? This was undoubtedly, without question my cue from the Lord, to CHILL OUT, and laugh. And I did. (Oh, and they turned the AC on too, praise the Lord who reigns on high!!)

I cannot imagine what story could possibly trump this one in our funny stories from Japan file…