Texas 'treat!

I told ya'll a few posts ago that I had a fabulous time "retreating" with some Divine Delaware Divas over spring break and that I'd write more about it later . . . Well, it's later!

When my sistah-friend, Beverly, and her husband, The Colonel, were transferred to Delaware a few years ago, she connected with the most fabulous group of women in a Bible study at the church she joined there. "These women were so real," she explained. "They 'd had it with playing church; what they wanted was Jesus, Himself. And y'know, once you get the Real Thing, you can't ever go back to the other!"

The whole time Bev was in Delaware, she talked about how fun it would be to plan a mini-retreat -- a kind of weekend-long slumber party -- with these women, but before she could make it happen, Bev and the Colonel suddenly found themselves heading back to Houston's Bay Area.

So what do you think Bev did? Why, she just invited them all to her house here for a "Texas 'Treat!" And they accepted! Yup! EI8HT of them jumped on a plane and headed here to the Lone Star State for four days and three nights of everything from Beth Moore (LIVE at First Baptist Houston!) to Texas Preacher Woman to Houston Livestock and Rodeo to shopping on Harwin (it's a Houston girl thing) to Cajun Cookin' at Cheri Cheryl's and then more Texas Preacher Woman. (And they even stopped at Hobby Lobby before going to the airport on the way home! I'm tellin' ya, these were seriously my kind of women!)

We knew from the start that this would be a different kind of retreat 'cause first of all, obviously, we were NOT secluded from the rest of the world by any stretch of the imagination with all of that comin' and goin'. Our theme for the retreat was a little different, too . . . Texas Hold'em: Learning to Play the Cards You're Dealt. (Well, c'mon, you knew we had to come up with somethin' Texas-y!)

Now you might be wonderin' how in the world we came up with a Bible study based on poker, but we did, and it was wonderful! And I'm gonna spend the next few posts letting ya'll in on some of it.

The first thing we learned was that ya gotta "Ante Up" . . .

My first year of college (right out of high school) I loved playing poker on Friday nights with the guys in my dorm. We'd play all night and then hit the dining hall for breakfast just as the sun was coming up Saturday morning. I was the only girl they let join in, probably, as much as for any other reason, because I was absolutely no threat to their winnings. In fact, i don't know that I ever had a night where I broke eve, but it was okay because I was right where I wanted to be -- smack dab in the middle of the action. And for that reason, it never occurred to me to not ante up just because I might lose. That idea never even crossed my mind. I knew from the get-go that being dealt-in to the game required a certain investment, and, to me, being one of the players, regardless of the outcome, was worth that cost.

I still feel that way. I want to be smack dab in the middle of what Papa God is doing -- so much so that I'm willing to ante up in order to be dealt-in on every hand. I want to play hard, taking risks, meeting the challenge when the ante's upped, taking the cards I'm dealt as far in the game as I can, following Papa's lead, and then leaving the final outcome to Him. If I play with that kind of abandon, then every hand becomes a winning hand, whether I'm holding aces over kings or a simple pair of deuces.

Okay, that's just a little bit of an intro for now . . . tomorrow, I'll talk about what to do when we don't feel quite as "spiritual" as that last paragraph because . . .

IN THE INTEREST OF HONESTY . . . I confess that I don’t always want to be smack dab in the middle of what Papa God’s doing – instead, I find myself leaning toward what I want to be doing without consulting Papa at all. (Or I want Papa’s outcome, but I want to accomplish it on my own, in my own way, and in my own sweet time, to boot -- no pun intended.)

And of course, I’m sure this has never happened to you, but there are days when I just don’t want to ante up – I want to be a no-show!

What about those days?

Tomorrow we'll talk about that.

Meanwhile, deal me IN!

Pamm