Another Near-Death at The Pharmacy

Okay, even though I do often post spiritual revelations and thoughts here, I am fully aware that the REAL reason you come to this blog is for the pharmacy stories and similar topical humorous tales that often derive from my torture. So here's the latest.

After a VERY rough morning at the pharmacy with customers bustling in and out, us running around like mad people trying to get prescriptions filled and sold, I finally get to my lunch break.  I'm sitting there during my hour-long breather and just silently praying that God will give me what I need to get me through the rest of this day.  WELLLL....true to His sympathetic nature, He catered to my sense of humor a bit for sure.

It was fate, and the small dark-haired hispanic 5-year-old was bouncing playfully around his mama's waist while she picked up her medicine. But then, (and I could hear the theme from JAWS growing louder and louder) Grandma comes creeping up the aisle in her motorized cart.  Grandma, obviously not well acquainted with this high-tech motor machine tries frantically to put on the breaks and even swerves, but poor Pueblo bounced right into the path of Grandma's death machine.  The boy's Buzz-Lightyear shoes went flying up over his head and he tumbled to the ground with a *thud*. In horror, Grandma tries to get the cart away from the child but in her state of panic accidently puts the cart into reverse and hit the kid a SECOND time!  I guess she figured any job worth doing is worthy doing thoroughly.

In my efforts to apologize for bursting out into laughter, I did peek over the counter to see if Pueblo survived. No harm done. I just figure now he won't want to accompany mommy to the Pharmacy. :)

Guitar Center and Hip-Sticking Finger-Licking good Food.

Gooood morning my now 14 followers! I see all your pretty little faces on the margin of my "followers" list and I am reminded of how blessed I am to know each of you.  Which by the way, "followers" just sounds weird. I'm not Charlie Manson and I'm not Jesus, having followers is goofy. what do I call you guys? lol. This little blog community should have an identifiable name. lol.

So I am headed to the place I can most tangibly identify with Heaven.....Guitar Center. Wall-to-wall decked with shiny guitars begging to be cradled in my hands and to let their voices be heard for a few minutes. I may even take one of my less-needed guitars and "put it up for adoption"...i can't say the "T" word. It sounds so inhumane. I'm not trading  it in like I don't want it any more, it's just that a $400 cat deposit will come at a less painful expense if I can get $200 out of a guitar I never use.

AND....THE GRAND FINALE....we are eating at Cheddar's most likely today. The home of the cookie-monster skillet sundae. Heaven on your tastebuds and cellulite on your hips. I can't wait.
So how has this week been for you? Have anything this weekend you're looking forward to?

Awaken The Dawn

Through a series of events literally too extravagant for words, God has knocked me off me my feet this weekend. And now, via this blog, I'd like to pass the blessing forward to you.  My 13 followers. :)

The past two years of my life I would categorize as a season of trial. It wasn't all bad, but there were two blatant issues that hung over me like a shadow almost constantly.  I tried (like all of us have with one issue or another) to "give it to God". Isn't that what we good Christian folk always say to one another when we don't know what other counsel to give?  "Just give it to God."  Well I'd tried again and again to give my burdens over to Him, but somehow I kept obliging myself right back to the God role.  Carrying them myself. 

Well, LOOOOOOOONG story short, this past Saturday night God all-out drenched my apartment with His presence and in a moment of worship, just Him and I, I felt Him say into my heart,
"I promised in My Word that sorrow lasts for the night and joy comes in the morning. Jordan Shea, your night....is...over.  Morning is here. Now Beloved... awaken the dawn with your praise."
Yall, I can't with my little blog words describe to you the literal feeling that came over me of breaking through and crossing a finish line. It's like I'd busted through a stained-glass window and it shattered into a million pieces.  God TOOK that burden from me. I didn't give it, didn't have some giant moment of surrender, God did what I could not do my self.

Here's where the application for you comes in. If you are currently in a night of sorrow, mourning, or trial and you're weary, sleep-deprived, broken, hoping that God's Word comes to be true for you:  Awaken the dawn with your praise.   Here's what God showed me. I think I would still be in the dark night of sorrow had I not for the past two years deliberately praised Him. I would get phone calls late at night from a friend who was struggling, and even in my brokenness for them I would hang up that phone, grab my guitar and sing "blessed be Your name!"  I truly believe that this dawn of morning in my life was awakened by my praise.

Wherever you are, "dawn" does not have to mean heaven. there can be a place of restoration here on this terrestrial turf. I believe it. It doesn't necessarily mean that everything you've lost will be given back, but every strand of joy the enemy has stolen can be reclaimed. Your night has lasted long enough. Awaken a new day in your life by choosing to bless God's name. Angels lean in and are intrigued with wonder when they see this being called man, the apple of God's eye, worship. We get to experience something that Scripture says angels long to look into:  Grace.  The created beings that have beheld the very countenance of God envy us!  We know a part of God's heart that they can only imagine. Take hold of God's graces and worship Him for He is good.

Keep doin' the walk.
Jordan

One Can of Spam and No Pet.

Well Bloggers, we are now 11 strong! That's right, our little community here of us who enjoy a good laugh at my expense has reached the double digits. WOOP WOOP. Ya'll rock my socks. :)


So here's the latest from the Pharmacy. I got screamed at by very passionate woman who was certain that I was the devil in diguise personally out on a mission to screw up her prescription.  What this dear lady does not understand is that I am perfectly capable of screwing things up without it being on purpose. :)  Secondly she lacks the understanding that the mistake IS NOT THE CASHIER'S FAULT. That's me. CASH-IER.  The person who hands you your meds and takes your dough. That's it. End of story. Yet we brave soldiers on the frontlines are usually the only faces that people see when they visit the Pharmacy. So when a prescription is late or out of stock, despite our innocence, our very lives are jeopardized by the raging hormones and emotions of the unmedicated public.  It's a hard job, but someone has to do it.  :)


I've been doing a ton of songwriting lately. I'm living on my own for the first time ever. yep. One bed-room, two boxes of pop-tarts, a lonely can of Spam and a two-liter of Pepsi. There's not a lot that can beat that when it's ALL YOURS.  :)  But be in prayer...I lack one thing. you see I am currently the ONLY LIVING THING in this apartment. I don't even have a plant. i desperately want a pet, but it's a $400 deposit. Pray that I can get a cat soon so I have somebody to pur and rub against my feet in the mornings while I'm brushing my teeth. Talking to a can of Spam is just not the same.
What about you all?  What's new for you in 2011?