Life in Laura's Mind

Day 1 ... cont'd
Here I am again! I knew treading on the waters of technology could be dangerous! I started this post desribing what I expect the topics will be, and then tried to see if I could change my blog's title to something more about my faith journey -- "Life on the road with Laura" -- no, too much life a band tour. "Inside Laura's Faith walk" -- no alliterative flair ... so lacking and brilliant idea or the tech-know-how to change it, it stays "Life in Laura's Mind," with a probable emphasis on working through issues of faith as it applies to my life. I start again, after failing to retrieve and edit my first post ...

The deep booming voice of Dr. Walter Keller is resounding in my mind... when he was the liturgist for services at the Chapel of the Ressureection @ VU, he would interrupt the time of Confession with the words of Hebrews 1:1: "In many and various ways, God spoke to his people of old through the prophets, (and the congregation would respond) but now in these last days, he has spoken to us through his Son." I have found that Jesus speaks through just as many and various ways -- early morning musings, tearful prayers, soft spoken words among friends, books from wise Christians who've gone before, snippets of sermons and radios broadcasts, song lyrics, and on that rare but treasured occasion, bits of dreams that cling to the underside of my mind for days following...like this one :

This morning I woke from an image of a large family room style kitchen area, where members of my past and present church family were gathering for coffee hour. I've been daydreaming about a new kitchen, and the colors of this new church space were just that -- bright, cheerful yellow, crisp white, clear aqua blue -- surrounded by groupings of comfortable furniture where people lounged an chatted. In this dream, I was designing a logo for this new space in my head, and as I was thinking, someon spoke -- We need to have a name for this place -- and someone else suggested the very name I was considering -- "the Free Cafe" the verse below referencing our Freedom in Christ. It was a plae of Grace, where hanging your feet over the edge of the furniture is ok, and eating in the living room is allowed. Someone was insisting that we should NOT cut the whole donuts in half, but allow the children to eat a whole one. I started to scold my children as I saw their mouths full of powdered jelly filled pasteries. Someone commented that we'll never get the people to move from here to Bible study, and then suggested we just hold our small groups there. As I woke, I began to flesh out this idea -- the Free Cafe -- can there really be a place like that? What would it really be like? People's cast off furniture that could tolerate a coffee or juice spill? No, that's not the look I'm going for ... warm chocolate brown leather couches with end tables... a tiled area around the open bar, bar stools and round tables for 2-3, end tables, a plant or two, accent lamps, ottomans ... in the middle but off to the side a little a free standing fire place like @ Panera, with devotion readings and a stray comic or two scattered on the hearth, at the far end a small stage with a keyboard and stool for an acoustic guitar, for community coffee houses or for leading worship ... on the other end an open kitchen with a large island, cupboards underneath with labels, where no one will be removed from the action while serving, a counter where heart to heart talks can talk place like they do in many a bar, here with a different focus...finally glass ways on one side, where the whole world walking by can see that THIS IS THE PLACE TO BE.