Old and New

Do you remember learning this song as a kid?

"Make new friends, but keep the old,
One is silver and the other gold."

My weekend was reminiscent of that song. I went to the Anne Graham Lotz "Just Give Me Jesus" conference this weekend and the conference itself was amazing enough! But I got to experience it with a "new" friend and an "old" friend. Friday night I went with my friend, Julie. Now I probably need to stop referring to Julie as my "new" friend because we have shared enough time together to have plenty to blackmail each other with! Jules challenges me spiritually and she tells me that I do the same for her. We talk about scripture and our quiet time struggles but it doesn't stop there. Julie is the one who issued the "quiet time challenge" after one of these talks. There's a verse in Proverbs 27:17 that says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." That is my friendship with Julie. So, we had a great time at the conference and then went to Buzzard Billy's Flying Carp Cafe for dinner. It's in the basement of a historic building on Court Ave in downtown Des Moines. Very cool place, very good food and we laughed our heads off...hard to top and evening like that.

But Julie couldn't go to the conference today but that was ok because my friend, Christa, was coming down from the Twin Cities. Christa is friends with Stephanie Seefeldt, who lead worship today during the prayer portion of the conference. She spent most of the day with Stephanie but we did get to sit together and pray and sing together during one session. I met Christa way back in 1996 when we both toured with The Continental Singers. Our main program was the musical "Dreamer", the story of Joseph. (Which, I see, The Continentals are reviving this year.) Anyway...Christa and I became fast friends on that tour and have kept in touch over the years. Actually (and she didn't want me to tell you this) she is my "blog mother". She's the reason I have this blog. We had another laugh today about how that came to be...I love memories like that. My friendship with Christa is a gentle reminder to me of a time when I walked closer with the Lord. A time when I prayed more and worried less. I mean I prayed about EVERYTHING. If someone lost a pen or their bible on tour the first thing out of my mouth was "did you pray about it?" To which usually they said no so we would stop and pray about it. Man...I miss that part of me. I didn't get to spend nearly enough time today with her so I'm looking forward to when we can have a weekend long visit soon! (I meant that today, Christa! In the next 3 weeks so check your calendar!)

So, the old and the new. One is not better than the other and one is not more precious than the other. They both play very different God-given roles in my life and my life is richer for knowing them both. So, Jules and Christa, thanks for laughing with me and loving me. And thanks for what you bring to my life. You live your lives in such a way that I can see Jesus in you. I love you, both...