Padme is a big tea drinker

Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

Last week Padme came to my office and said, "I am walking to 7-Eleven to get a tea, do you want to come with?" 

When I get asked to:

• Come with
• Can you drive me...
• I am going to get coffee...
• I need to go to Walmart...

It is code for, "I need to talk." so I always say, "Sure." 

So when Padme came into my office and asked me to "Come with." I said, "Sure." 

We walked and talked, and talked and walked. When we got to 7-Eleven, Padme walked over to the refrigerated wall unit thingy-a-bob, reached in and grabbed a bottle of unsweetened Black Tea that was chilled to her liking.

Padme is a big tea drinker, not that she is big and drinks tea, not at all. In fact if I even thought she was a big tea drinker meaning that she was big and drinks tea she would just kill me. After-all there really isn't much call for an all-American pitcher after softball is over. The one good thing left is to wing a softball at the Chappy's head at 70-mph. It would kill me. So no, I am not saying that she is a big tea drinker and that she is big and drinks tea. I say she is a big tea drinker, because she is normal size (Not to big, and not to little, but just right. Kind of like the porridge in Goldilocks and the three bears; which is a whole other thing. Since when did Bears prefer porridge over normal "bear" food? But I am not talking about that now, I am talking about Padme being a big tea drinker, meaning that she is "normal size," as I just said and loves to drink tea. Not just any tea but black tea with one Splenda in it. 

Padme grabbed the tea from the refrigerated wall unit thingy-a- bob saying, "I misjudged how much tea I would need for this week, so I had to come to 7-Eleven." 

I said, "Oh" and was about to ask what else is going on in her life, which is chaplain code for, "Will you just get to the point. I am a busy man!" As I have been told many times, "You're the best chaplain ever!" When what did my wonderous eyes see? The Powerball sign said that this weeks Powerball jackpot was at $400 million!!

As we walked to the cash register I said, "I am going to buy a Powerball ticket!"

Padme responded, "If you win you owe me $100 dollars." 

I said $100?"

She said, "Yes, I am not greedy." 

What she didn't realize is that I was thinking more like $10. 

We got to the register and Padme bought her tea. I said, "I would like one Powerball ticket please." 

She said it was $2. 

I said, "Isn't there a another thingy I am supposed to buy?"  

She said, "Yes, there is the kicker. that costs an extra dollar" Now I was getting really worried. I am standing next to a pitcher that was going to kill me for calling her a "big tea drinker," and now I am buying a "kicker." Great this should really end well and it even cost me an extra dollar to not end well.

That is when the cashier said, "No, you idiot it is just another number." and turned to Padme and said, "Is this fool really your chaplain?"

Padme just smiled and said, Yep."

On the way back to the "Y" we talked about all the cool stuff I could do with the money I was going to win. I was going to pay for the new "Y" in Ridgefield, endow the chaplaincy program, along with a bunch of other stuff. 

I was really excited for the drawing the next day.

The next day came and went. I hadn't thought about the Powerball ticket at all (Have I ever told you I have a short attention span). The next day I remembered the ticket. I pulled the ticket from my wallet and googled the numbers.

They were, 10-39-47-56 and the Powerball was 08.

Then I looked at my ticket and Oh my God!!!!

My numbers were, 02-51-60-69 and my Powerball was 21.

Not one match! No matter how I moved the numbers around they still didn't match, and I tried. I moved the numbers like 6-times and still nothing, Uggggg.....

By now God is rolling on the floor laughing. 

He said, "Roger you are such a dufus (Dufus is one of His pet names for me). Of course, you didn't win, that is not how I am using you. Now go be with the hurting, the sick, and the lost. Listen to those that ask you to:

• Come with
• Can you drive me...
• I am going to get coffee...
• I need to go to Walmart...

Go do what I called you to do."

It is funny, when I relax and just do what God has called me to do and not try to be "bigger" than I am. I sit really comfortably in my world. It is only when I try to be something that I am not that things get wanky. I was dreaming of all the stuff I could have done with a Powerball ticket instead of all the things I can do with God. 

It is a good reminder.

I shouldn't have put my faith in a Powerball ticket, I should have put it in God instead. 

What are you putting your faith in?

Something to Ponder.

Blessings,

Roger