Loving the laughter

You have to love laughter. It is a condiment to many emotions. You are happy - you laugh. You are scared - you laugh (Dana drops to the floor first, then laughs.) You are riding in the family car going to the graveyard - you find something to make you laugh (or maybe our family is really, really strange but it happened at my mom's funeral). You are nervous - here comes the giggle. You are completely befuddled - you laugh as you give it up. Ralph and I have been laughing these last 18 hours as we find ourselves dealing with another chapter of what was to be our empty nest beginning. "Lord, what do You have us doing?" We didn't know we'd be learning new legal terms - didn't know how large our sphere of influence would get when we welcomed Branden back to our home. To be honest if we knew all that is ahead, would we have opened our door. Yes, I think we would have in this case but there is a part of me that believes God shelters us from knowing too much sometimes so we will simply trust Him and be obedient in the moment. We have been meeting some of Branden's friends. He is in a holding cell right now with one of those friends. We are communicating with another of his friends to get more of the story. As crazy, and believe me I know it is CRAZY, as it is, we are making connections with these friends for a reason we don't pretend to understand. Who is to say if God is giving opportunity for these young adults to have an older adult treat them with respect in the midst of their poor decision making and lifestyles. For Peter's sake, we don't think we are Mother Teresa here, but something is going on bigger than us. We want to be His love drawing the hurt, lost and even rebellious to a loving relationship with the only One who can complete their lives. ....okay, so you aren't left hanging...we aren't sure what the outcome will be for Branden's situation. They have 24 hours to charge him or release him. He was in the wrong place with the wrong person and is being held on "probably cause". He also didn't make his last appointment with his probation officer so that could cost him some jail time. And as crazy as this sounds, we are glad for this turn of events (though we hope he is released!) because we can now say "you've tried it your way - how's that working for you?" and then lay out some expectations he will have to agree to because he had his chance and blew it.
I doubt that many read my blog that don't know us fairly well so I hope it is okay that we ask you to pray for us as we try to hear what God wants us to do with this opportunity. Pray for a brokeness in Branden that would cause him to hunger for more of the Lord (he has said the salvation prayer but I don't know that he understands the significance - has dodged discipling so far - still don't think we can force that on him so am praying he hungers for it. Pray for Ralph and I to be in unity on the decisions and actions we take. Pray for our other children that they agree with the risks we are taking and aren't harmed by it.
Laughter...couldn't exist without it!