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Gaylord Opryland Hotel
Did I tell you that my contact person at Holland Christian School is Kathi Bates (Author meets Kathi Bates…hm). Turns out she is a sweetheart and both my legs still work. No Misery in Holland.
Kathi picks me up early and we go over the high school where I speak in the early morning chapel. I spoke about the power of our secrets, how the trap us inside. We can’t tell them because we are terrified we will lose control and whatever affection and approval we have managed to scratch together, but when we are offered affection and approval we can’t receive it because we don’t trust it because they don’t know the secrets. Lose/lose. Afterwords many students came up to talk and cry and hug. One young man broke completely down and was immediately engulfed by friends. They held him while he sobbed his heart out. They were the Church doing what the Church at its best does; loving and healing.
I spoke to a class of students and questions led to a good discussion. While Jesus did not have Shack on the inside, on the cross he took on all of ours and out of our lostness ‘felt’ as if Papa had abandoned him, which, of course was not true. And in our darkness, Jesus committed everything he had into Papa tender affection. Father, Son and Spirit accomplishing the purpose established before creation; our salvation, our healing.
A little after noon I boarded a flight via Cincinnati to Nashville. I was supposed to be going to Memphis to play a role in a historical drama, a movie. I know, weird….but kinda way cool too. There were supposed to be shooting scenes with my character, the founding director of Palmer Homes, along with my wife played by Billie Cash, a relative of Johnny Cash. The whole shooting schedule was delayed because James Earl Jones was trapped in England by the Iceland volcanic action that shut down air travel. I may still do the part but now my scheduling might not work…we will see. No expectations.
Image may be NSFW.
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So I came to Nashville instead and yesterday and today have been filled with conversation with friends new and old. Even got to play golf this afternoon; first time this year if I remember correctly. The weather was beautiful here, but that didn’t help my score. A few years ago I decided to keep my ‘real’ score, so it gets pretty high. I like this actual scoring a lot better; sort of another example of the truth shall set you free. I made my only par on the last hole and that is enough to bring me back another day.
I am staying at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. My hotel ratings are as follows: Shower is 3. Appearance, cleanliness etc is a 4. Amenities is 3.5. 1 bonus points: they give me two free bottles of water a day and the view from my window (first pic on this blog) is very good. Total score is 11.5 out of 17 (including the two bonus points), which is quite good.
Tomorrow (Friday) is another day of meetings and re-connections. I am running out of clothes so I have to hit a Laundromat sometime soon. I probably won’t blog until Saturday night. Saturday morning I speak here at a private event and then fly on to Dallas, where I will spend the weekend at Lover’s Lane United Methodist Church (not making this up), before flying home for three days next week. I am so ready to be with my family!!
