SOUGHT. BOUGHT. SPENT. AND KEPT IN HIS WALLET.

Colossians 2:6-17 (the fake angie version)
6And now, just as you accepted Angie Osborne as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to her. 7Let your roots grow down into her and draw up nourishment from her, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all she has done.

I shared this verse with my high schoolers the night I resigned, as a way of highlighting the absurdity of what it would be like if they focused on me rather than Jesus as I resigned. They laughed as soon as I started reading, of course. Then I shared this verse, also of my own creation.

John 1:6-9 (the new Angie version)
God sent Angie to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of her testimony. Angie herself was not the light; she was only a witness to the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world later; the true light was Jesus.

Tonight I went to the viewing of a parent of one of the students in my old student ministry. Halfway through the viewing, I had to stop Wes Black from stooping down to the ground with a very LARGE, clownlike ruler, slipping Amanda's shoe off and measuring the heel of it just to see how tall it was. People everywhere were staring and gawking at the LOUD crowd of laughter ridden teenagers. As soon as I said, "Wes, you do realize that you're crouched on the ground with a ruler measuing a shoe at a VIEWING, right?" He immediately shot up and said, "OH! My gosh! You're right! I totally forgot! hahaha...Good call. Wow. Do you ever stop being a youth pastor?" I guess not. After the viewing, some of the students and volunteers who had gathered decided to go to Steak-N-Shake. I haven't spent time with most of these people since I resigned because it can so easily become an awkward situation for both me and them. I was especially excited though to see two of my Briggs boys, Don and Ralphael, because I don't normally have the opportunity to see them on the weekends at church since they don't attend our church (only the student ministry).

We were in the middle of dinner, talking about something completely random while Don and Ralphael were showing us pictures out of their wallets (mostly family pictures), when Ralphael said, "Hey Angie, you wanna see something. Take a look at this." He handed me a folded up piece of paper that looks like it had been folded and unfolded a hundred times into two inch by one inch square. I quickly saw that it was on Vineyard letterhead and immediately, I knew what it was. It was my resignation letter.

Amanda (another high schooler from a neighboring school) said, "Ralphey, what? You just carry that around? WHY?" He said, "I don't know. I just do. It means something to me. Angie do you remember when you gave us those?" "Yeah, Ralphael, I do. That's cool that you have that." After I'd looked it over for a moment, I folded it back up and gave it back, but then he handed me another slip of paper. It was some scripture he'd written down related to a sermon I'd taught one night, and said, "Yeah, and look at this. How about that?"

Yeah. How about that? *HEAVY sigh*