Tongues o' Fire

1994ish Ashley Jordan
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

In the last few months, we've been sharing testimonies we've called "Tongues O' Fire" in which we recall someone in our lives who has brought God to us in a very real way. This past Sunday, we heard from Adam, who is an intern this semester at Jeff St. He gave a powerful and delightful honoring of his big sister...

My big sister Carlye taught me that if I act up too much she WILL physically sit on top of me until I calm down and apologize…

My big sister Carlye taught me that if I bite her, or hang a freshly caught fish in a ziplock bag on our maroon refrigerator with magnets, she WILL physically sit on top of me until I understand why that’s gross…

My big sister Carlye taught me that even when no one who drives by the top of our driveway wants to stop at my lemonade stand, or my used toy stand, or my Charlie Chaplin impersonation stand, that I still always have a niche market in big sisters who can never get enough lemonade, rusty matchbox cars, and Charlie Chaplin…

My big sister Carlye taught me that your strength comes from how you love yourself, how your family loves you, and how God loves you; it does NOT matter what the kids at school say or whether or not you have many friends…

My big sister Carlye taught me that you can still listen to bad music; you just sing a different word, like “ice-cream” when mom and dad would tell you to turn it off…

My big sister Carlye taught me that Christians can be real, cool, fun, smart, and engage in all the things everybody else is concerned with around them…Christians DON’T live in enclosed habitats like the animals at the Zoo…

My sister Carlye taught me that women CAN be ministers and that even when a quarter of our home-church leaves when she gets hired, God uses even that kind of occasion to weave good, humbling, and beautiful things…

My sister Carlye taught me that even after seven years of ministry, even when your own friends make you pay in blood for challenging their customs, you still press on and don’t let it stop you…

My sister Carlye is teaching me how to be a parent, how to love little people, and to realize that parenthood is one of those things that gets its own category, FAR beyond that of “full-time job”…

My sister Carlye is teaching me that it is actually OK to change, or grow, and that this doesn’t mean you are betraying the family values but you are honoring them with your own contributions…

My sister Carlye and I are learning together that even when a spouse runs off, when grandparents die, when friends and family move far away, when circumstances arise that you cannot control or see coming ahead of time, and even when postpartum depression makes you question whether your life will ever be what you always imagined it would, that you can rise up like a phoenix from the ashes in resurrection…

My sister Carlye and I are learning together that God never runs out of life to give out or good ideas for new changes of plans…that God is a Tinker who likes to stitch together broken bits of junk and make us into works of art that breath…
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Thanks, Adam!