Today I found it interesting to note how much time it took for the restaurant at our hotel to seat us for what is a fairly basic and straightforward breakfast, so much time that the restaurant staff themselves, who looked rather harried, openly admitted that they were short staffed and having problems busing the tables to get people seated. Once we got seated we had our usual breakfast, and they were smart enough to know that I wanted my meal billed to the room and also to bring my mother’s customary hot water afterward.

Speaking of hot water, today we had two split sermon messages and the first one was definitely an interesting one that gave me thoughts that I do not normally like to have when it comes to a message. The speaker gave an extremely digressive and disorganized discussion of how our walk as believers mirrors the epic multi-generational journeys of the monarch butterfly, with our guidance being provided by the Holy Spirit rather than instinct. Unfortunately, the speaker, who made mention numerous times to going off topic and getting (deserved) glare from his wife, made it seem as if the salvation of heroes of the faith like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob depends on our own successful journey to the Kingdom of God rather than being secure while they wait for us to complete our own life’s journey. Had the speaker quoted the relevant verses in Hebrews (like Hebrews 11:40), he would not have been led astray by his desire to extemporize.

The second split sermon was far easier to appreciate. The speaker was talking about the difference between God’s family plan and Satan’s plan to divide families between husbands and wives and between generations within the same family, and he went to the household code in Ephesians that I have planned for an upcoming Bible Study without going into much detail about the passage, which was interesting to see that he focused mainly on the physical meaning of these two passages and not its implications for institutions outside the family. Still, there is something to be appreciated in a basic but faithful message as opposed to one that ends up going far off the reservation in its attempt to be creative.

After services we had a few conversations and then went up to the room for a relaxing afternoon. My stepfather napped and read some while I did a bit of writing, including some reviews. My mother, though, had an interesting time shopping for luggage, involving a Kohl’s terminal that refused to accept her credit cards and forced her to pay for her new suitcase with cash. This experience led her to call her credit card companies when she returned to make sure that there was no problem with the credit cards–and fortunately there was not. It was at that point that we decided to wander off to dinner, which will be the subject of a forthcoming review, naturally, although there was definitely concern when my mother had a nosebleed while we were eating, something that had not happened for her in thirty years, even if it is not particularly uncommon for me. It was after that when we were able to have a relaxing evening again of listening to music and my folks listening to me read out my recent blog posts.