Favorite People

   This afternoon one of my favorite people came to visit me. Turns out he even drove out of his way to come see me. How sweet is that. I hope the special "Irish-Italian" spaghetti made it worth his while! I met Dennis this past summer when I went on my first deployment with Rapid Response Team of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association(wow, that's a mouthful).  He was one of the team leaders - or something like that - crew leaders - I don't remember what they call it. But anyway - he quickly became one of my "Favorite People" (FP). His commitment to Samaritan's Purse(SP) and his love of the Lord were so incredibly evident to those of us blessed to get to know him. But he wouldn't like all this talk about himself...but nonetheless it's true. He spends his life (for now anyway - as he told me "Until God tells me to do something else or I fall off a roof" - I hope it's not the latter) traveling around the country mostly with SP to help with disaster recovery and rebuilds. If he isn't with SP he is out there helping someone else. To me he is a true modern day disciple. He has left most everything behind and followed The Call to serve his Lord. It means lots of time on the road, little privacy, hard work and being with strangers a great deal of the time. He doesn't seem to mind though.
   Sometimes this sounds like a great life to me. Go help where people need you, serve the Lord, little material crap to drag you down. But I don't think this is a realistic lifestyle for me at the present time - my two middle school daughters might take issue! And I would tire quickly of community living and showers! One week here and there is about all I prefer to endure! I like my own bed and my own bathroom. So his willingness to go without those things makes him a pretty amazing guy to me.
   But I've gone off topic here a  bit - because my title is Favorite People...so returning from my bunny trail...another of my FP's went away today. She's a gal I teach with at my school. She teaches art and drama and we have eaten lunch together everyday for the past year with the exception of the month in the summer we were out. She's had a tough go here recently and she has held her head up and been so strong and amazing through a very hard and dark and painful time. She is beautiful, funny, and caring and I am so sad to see her go. I had two other FP's from work leave me this past fall when one retired and the other went to another school. So now all my FP's have gone and lunch isn't the same. Now I eat with some other wonderful people, but these 3 are very special to me. 
   The FP's in our lives carry us through the tough stuff, they inspire us, they laugh with us and even sometimes at us, they encourage us, they call us on our stuff sometimes too. There are probably about 6-8 people I consider my FP's. I get incredibly excited when I know I am going to see them. They bring me joy. I know I can just jump in with them and they will follow right along with the storyline even if it's been awhile.  They accept me as I am - all lumpy and bumpy and imperfect. They tolerate my loud laugh - some even like it.
Who are your FP's? DO they know they are your FP's? I try to make sure mine know-  but I know I could do a much better job. I think I am going to work on that. Boy the list of things I need to work on sure is getting long....