I woke up expecting to hear the shower or Bishop GE Patterson or quiet sniggly laughter this morning. It is Saturday, the day for Spencer adventures. The day I have known for years as the day to get up to some foolishness.

I would know the foolishness was afoot because he’d come home with fresh coffee and Krispy Kreme donuts in an effort to entice me out of languorous repose and persuade me to embark on what came to be known as a “Spencer Adventure.”

If you know? You KNOW.

I’d drag myself out the bed with coffee in hand, gather my accoutrements for the day ahead of me, slap on some lipstick and comb my hair, and prepare for the great unknown.

That was the thing about loving a guy like Spencer—you always had to be prepared for the GREAT and the UNKNOWN. Complicated, curious, and crazy leaps into a world that I wouldn’t bother to look into much passed my books and brain and freshly brewed coffee. From Spencer, I learned the core of faith. What it felt like to take a chance over and over again, these huge steps into nothing where something would appear. For all his bluster and shortcomings, Spencer did exactly what he was supposed to do when it came to the assignment of me. He imaged for me Adonai’s expectation of the believer in Christ. To wake up every day with a praise in my mouth and a sword in my hand, gather the whole armor of God for the day’s journey, slap on some lipstick and comb my hair in preparation for the GREAT UNKNOWN. To know that whatever I have in my hand is all I need because all I have need of is in HIS. To trust HIS will, and work the process regardless of external outcome because the most important outcome is my willingness, my obedience, my trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Isn’t it funny how we see all the good that we glossed over once the giver is gone?

Anyway, I woke up this morning to silence. No coffee. No donuts. No can’t whisper for nothing rumbling voice coming from the next room. No adventure with Spencer. I looked at the final arrangements again, and I realized just how final it all is. How all that I have now are memories of the many adventures I had with my Spencer. A time to mourn and a time to rejoice, the two interwoven in a complex dance in the soul as I navigate a new great unknown without my adventure buddy.

He left me in good and perfect hands though. The Lord is very near to me. 💜

Pressing on the upward way, Great Joy