Saturday, June 1, 2024
Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
The second part of this devotion, slightly changed, was first posted on June 1, 2022.
Marc and Evie on vacation at last
June 1, 2024
Keep yourselves in the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Marc and his girlfriend Evie spent last week with us in Austin and at Port Aransas on the Texas Gulf coast. After hours of delay on Sunday, and eventual flight cancellation in Chicago, they arrived in Austin, although without one suitcase, which we retrieved by the end of the day on Monday. They tried to sleep overnight at O’Hare, but as you can imagine, that was difficult.
Somehow we made it to the Apple Store at 11:29 AM Monday for an 11:30 genius bar appointment. Marc’s phone needed to have its screen replaced. Done by 2. At last a little sleep.
An evening with Rudy’s BBQ and swimming in our apartment pool and whirlpool, and they began to feel like they were on the vacation they had hoped for. Maybe better, because they found it impossible to take things for granted, to feel entitled, or to expect that they could fix anything that might happen. They trusted in God, beyond themselves.
Which is what all of us need more often than not. No need to worry about the bad stuff. That’s when the good stuff obviously comes from beyond ourselves. Thank God.
To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished and exultant, in the presence of his glory, to the only God, our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, power, and authority from ages past, now, and for ages to come.
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Watching Marc work at Bunny’s
June 1, 2022
Remember the words spoken beforehand. Keep yourselves in the love of God and wait for his mercy.
Sitting at Bunny’s with Andi and Aki we watched Marc do his splendid thing as bartender, knowing everyone’s name, making drinks faster than our eyes could follow his hands, carrying them inside and outside, spinning conversation all the while with almost everyone who came in, and cleaning up whenever he had a second. Marc was in his element. Now and then we just couldn’t help it – we applauded him.
And in time we met Ashlyn from Shawneetown, who turned out to be a big Marc fan too. She’s studying occupational therapy, hoping to work with veterans or disabled kids. Her home town doesn’t quite hold a thousand people. Shawneetown was moved from the banks of the Wabash River decades ago, and the original location has flooded over and over since.
In the last few years her mother has moved to a tiny desert town an hour outside Las Vegas, another “Shawneetown” on the other side of the country. On one of the three screens above the bar guys were playing poker in Florida. Seven slot machines lined the outside wall, near the door. Outside eight tables of rowdy, happy people were making lots of noise.
When we arrived at Bunny’s it was slow slow slow. Marc was the only serving person left, along with the short order chef in back. No reason to keep extra wait staff around, they were happy to leave.
But the people started coming, and they kept on coming. Bunny’s keeps its prices low, and their patrons appreciated that with lots of orders. At one point Marc had to catch up with charging for the drinks he had poured. I could almost see his brain sifting through the last few minutes, recapturing one detail after another.
Is this the world? Are we watching Marc carry the grace and love he has received from Jesus to the folks around him?
Andi and Aki watched with me, and none of us doubted for a moment that the customers in Bunny’s were blessed to be served by Marc. Maybe that’s a little nepotistic, or maybe it’s not. His way of connecting with them was personal, efficient, friendly and it went far beyond “business.” Sometimes he looked into their eyes. Often he asked about their troubles. And he wasted no time sharing his opinions – he just listened.
Often during Marc’s life we have hoped and prayed that he would become a spiritual servant, a giver of all good things, sharing his own miracles and gifts from God with others. He has done this in all kinds of ways in his almost forty years, and now he is doing it several nights a week at Bunny’s, in Urbana.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
(Jude, Psalm 63, Col 3, Mark 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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