Day 1 (Saturday): Listen, and Follow

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." John 10:27

This is the passage from our worship service at Mariners Church in Irvine last night (which according to Wikipedia is the 2nd largest megachurch in California). As sheep of the Good Shepherd, do we know his voice? Do we listen for it or are we always the ones talking? Do we listen, and then follow, and then listen, and then follow him?

After the sermon, we were given a space of time to listen to God. It was soul-healing to have a time to breathe, after the busyness and stress of a long day in the car together. To me, God spoke words of love and encouragement: Dear Joni. Come here and rest. I know it has been stressful for you lately, and you've been extending yourself to take care of others. I'm proud of you. I love you. Come and rest, dear one. 

After church, we drove to my brother's place, to find M & B distracted on the doorstep. "I'm so sorry, Joni! This has never happened before!" wailed B. "We just saw on our video doorbell. That package that you shipped to our house has been stolen off the doorstep while we were at church!"

It was an unpleasant and ironic blow. Knowing I was going to be gone for a few days, I had my package shipped to their house so that I wouldn't run the risk of getting it stolen while I was gone, since I had a package stolen that way from my doorstep two weeks ago. And now here we were. It was surreal, like God was reaching down and tapping me on the shoulder: Watch this.

Oh well, I thought. It's frustrating and sad, but what can I do about it? And after all, it's just the money. It's not like I can't order it again. At least it's not something I really cared about.

But my brother and sister-in-law were upset for me and they called the police to make a report. It's very unnerving to find out there is package theft in your neighborhood. 

After that, we all went back inside and had our Team Time. We talked about whom to pray for from today, and of the people we brought up, one of them was the man who stole my package.

We were busy setting up for a game of Nertz when the we heard a heavy repeated knock on the door. It was the sheriff and he was holding up an Amazon package. 

"We found him," the sheriff announced, when I opened the door. 

Turns out the man lives a few streets away, and the police, casing the neighborhood, recognized his truck from my brother's doorbell video. They quickly found the man, and he confessed, visibly shaking, that he had learned his lesson. He was so thankful that my brother and sister had decided not to prosecute, and he said that he would never do anything like that again.  

I went back inside and and announced what happened to our team. "See, we said that we would pray for him, and look what God did!" 

It was exciting to get closure, when we hadn't expected it. But even more, for me, was the recognition that in very tangible ways, God was reminding me of his message to me: I love you, and this is my gift to prove it to you. 

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