Last night, my wife Valerie [aka The Beautiful Val aka tbV] and i won the lottery.
Now let me get this straight, i am not talking about the Dutch Lottery that i seem to win with alarming regularity [despite having never sent in any kind of entry or bought any ticket of any kind, but if it arrives in my email it must be true, right?]
And i don’t mean that time that kind old Nigerian widow mailed me to let me know she had decided to share the millions, if not billions, her late husband had left her that she felt more comfortable storing in a South African stranger’s bank account, with me.
I am talking the real lottery.
Well, not the money one, obviously. Why would i be in any way excited about that?
THE SETTING
Last night about 20 of our friends and family gathered together in the lounge of the place we have been staying in, in Tokai, that we are needing to move out of in two weeks, to pray and listen with us as we tried to discern and hear from God anything with regards to where we would stay next.
Well, we know where we are staying next and my best mate Duncan was there to represent the Houstons who have opened their house to us on a number of occasions in the last three years so that we have a place to stay in between major transitions.
i wrote a piece a few months ago looking at how tbV and i want to live intentionally where we live, and this feels like an extension of that.
It is important to articulate that we don’t have a ‘The One’ kind of mindset, that God has a specific place set aside for us and we just need to figure out where that is and guess right and then BOOM! But at the same time, if we believe in a loving God [and maybe more of that in a later post], we believe that it is okay for us to ask for a specific place and see if God will give one to us.
The evening was incredible and went way beyond either of our expectations [and maybe more of that later as well in a different other post] which was largely due to the way in which our dear friend, Arthur Stewart, led our friends in a specific journey of prayer.
But for me, and i think both of us, we could have ended before we even began the meeting and it still would have been a Jackpot status event.
Not everyone we wanted to be there was available or could make it, but those who came, demonstrating love, willingness to give of their time and intent in terms of aligning their hearts and prayers and choosing to stand alongside us, absolutely moved us. We have some incredible people in our lives.
THAT is the Lottery win and it is worth so much more than any amount of money. And i’m not just saying that to sound noble or cheesy or emotional or anything [although i did spend most of the evening holding back the tears so i could just focus on what was being said and shared]. If you offered me ten million rand [or a billion] or that room filled with those people, i would choose those people every time. And i would not hesitate.
That is gold right there. The people who choose us, who champion us, who stick with us, who invest in us, who walk beside us, who lead us, who follow behind us, who feast with us and who mourn with us. Those who wrestle with ideas with us, who hold us accountable, who challenge us with love, who celebrate us and with us and invite us into their celebrations. Gold, gold, gold gold, gold. More than gold. There are no words which come close to expressing. You mean so much to us. Thank you.
And much more, but that’s enough for now. These walruses [walri?] appreciate you.
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