Thaddeus (And The Gospel Highway).

I am not worthy of the life that Jesus has given me. I can't accurately convey what that means to me, and although I often am very good at making "my" life about me - I am a pitiful, dirty sinner. What makes this unfathomable is that Jesus, through means I might never understand, looks at me and calls me His saint. Because of Christ, I am clean, whole, alive, holy.

What's more - even with these amazing gifts I manage to screw things up. He has made things very clear, and actually very simple, about what I am to do with this new life. I fail - time and time again. Yet, somehow, in His great mercy He actually blesses me when I fail...and even when I happen to do something right - I end up leaving fuller and better for having been in His presence while He worked.

All this to say that I have had an amazing two days. I feel like I might have actually been living life here for one of the first times.

My friend and I, accompanied by another acquaintance, made a trek this evening to our local coffee house. Monday nights = open mic night, so we thought we'd go up to check out the sights and sounds (my friend had also met some people previously that normally play Mondays). As we were sitting there, just relaxing, my friend looked over - saw a guy sitting by himself - and invited him over to our table. Little did I know, in my uneasiness as he came to sit, that this man would show me a lot more about Jesus than most people I know in my church.

We were all able to sit there for a little over an hour hearing this man's story, learning who he was, where he came from, what his life was all about. In a small way - it wasn't about us at all when he spoke - and it was amazing in those moments. He ended up taking the stage and performed two great folk songs for us - the second called "The Outlaw" that I, honestly, wish I had right now to listen to over and over again. It wasn't amazing music - it wasn't anything that people would go crazy over (most of the people in the shop were into their own things)...but it was amazing. People were sitting there totally oblivious to everything they were missing. They went to their drinks, their laptops, their conversations and totally missed life happening right on the stage.

I have no idea what our words meant to this man. All I know is that Jesus was again present - for the second glorious night in a row - in the most humble, sincere way possible. I left that coffee house tonight a better person for having been there, supremely blessed although I did not earn it nor deserve it.

And in all these words I cannot express what all happened. I cannot give enough thanks. I cannot summarize life.

Hopefully I'll see some of you in a coffee house one time and we can sit down together and just talk. We can get to know each other. We can leave this world behind for something that can be great.

Maybe someday you and I can have coffee with Jesus.