Our Third Wheel

This week, Sarah (the Angelo/Sarah wife) is out of town, which leaves Angelo as a lonely bachelor. So we have had him over just about every night to chat, have a drink, cookies, or dinner. He comes from late nights at work and just wants to be around someone. It's funny to hear him, our large-and-in-charge friend/community group leader be vulnerable about not wanting to be lonely.

This last month or so has been a beautiful time of deepening our friendship intimacy with him. He and Ryan have some sort of leadership co-op going on in our community group. We spent much time in prayer (well, not MUCH, but a good amount, some) about wether or not to lead a community group, and my dear sister nailed it on the head. We need to respond to pressure from the Lord on our hearts, not to the institutional pressure. That really freed us up to understand and communicate that we have carefully invested in our present community and to leave it to do something we didn't really feel called to do just isn't the right thing. So that has been interesting, and people seem to be responding well. It seems like everyone has expected us to be the next leaders, but we just aren't there.

Angelo told us after that he really didn't want us to go, and as he steps up in church leadership, he'll have to miss a few community groups and wants Ryan to lead - sort of like the understudy :o) Ryan is the phenomenal all-time best supporting actor. He is everyone's ace in the hole - a get-er-done-er. We take joy in the role God has placed us in. Our friend Mark laughed as he mentioned that he probably wouldn't still be friends with Angelo if it weren't for Ryan (meaning that Angelo is a blunt, tell-it-like-it-is person, and Ryan encourages, making a balanced team :o).