Come, Magnify the Lord With Me!

Psa 34:1-3 was my Call to Worship this morning. Unknown to me, it was also the text from which my Pastor decided to preach.  It goes (I'm paraphrasing), "I will bless the Lord at all times; God's Praise shall continually be in my mouth.  My soul will boast in the Lord; the afflicted will hear and rejoice.  Come, Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt God's Name Together!!!"

It's a lovely way to call people to worship, and by the time I stood up, I was truly feeling it.  Yesterday was the "blizzard of 2013" here in NYC.  It was really just a medium to heavy snowfall, but, stinging from criticism of past natural disasters, NYC's Mayor and Emergency Services were taking no chances.  They started shutting the City down on Friday night (sort of like my friend, His Excellency, Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, did with Boston).  They asked everyone who didn't need to be on the roads to stay home, so I stayed inside all day yesterday. 

While this gave an opportunity for the plows to get out and do their thing, it also created some of the unique aftermath of snowplows.  For instance, I put my car in the lot on Friday night. Got up early this morning so I could wipe it down before going to church.  (I've discovered that if I can get there by 10 am I can usually get a spot.  It only takes 10 minutes to get there, but I needed to be at the car by 9 to clean it off.)  So I turn it on and start getting the snow off the top and hood and front and back windows.  The guy parked beside me is doing the same.  While it was great that our parking lot plows it out for us, I hadn't counted on the fact that the plows would leave mounds of snow in front of and behind our rows of cars.  The cars are parked in rows, and the plow cleans the pavement between the rows.  This just piles up snow in front of the cars.  So I had a mountain of snow in front of and behind my car.  I, of course, tried to drive over the mountain, but since my car only has front wheel drive, and since the snow came up higher than the tires, I wasn't successful.  Fortunately, the guy beside me was there and HAD A SHOVEL!  So I got to shovel my car out and drive on to church. Come Magnify the Lord with me!

Got to church and found a spot on the same street, almost in front of the church.  The person who'd left it apparently had a jeep or some other suv; there was the same wall of snow all around where the car had been.  New York resident that I am, I tried rocking my car into the spot, but was not completely successful.  Once again, the guys behind me HAD SHOVELS!  They even had EXTRA shovels, and loaned me one, so I could shovel out the snow and get into the spot.  Let us Exalt God's Name Together!!!

All of that was great, but I had now shoveled TWO car lengths worth of snow, and hadn't even had my morning coffee.  Oh, and I had my computer and my LCD projector because I thought they wanted me to bring it for Black History month.  I dropped them off at the church, went to DD and got myself some coffee, got a cup for the Pastor, and got munchkins for the food table.

So by the time worship started, yes, I was ready to MAGNIFY the Lord!  I connected with my prayer partner who is joining me in the Vegan for Lent journey.  She was also excited. For both of us, I think it's not so much that we're "giving something up" for Lent as that we are being intentional about going to a deeper level during Lent. As I slowly adopt a more plant-based diet, I'm already seeing positive results, and am prayerful that the daily meditations combined with intentional change will open me up for God to do God's thing in me.

Church was church.  We have a state politician, Rep. Bill Perkins, who's been good to the church, so we honored him, his wife, and his staff.  Afterwards, we had Bible Study, and I had a counseling session with a couple who'll be married this summer.  Then I went to Fairway and had a wonderful time buying some vegan food, and reading the labels on other foods ( -- if it's made with cellulose gum, is it still vegan? I don't know, but I'm not buying it...) --it's AMAZING what they put into food these days, and equally amazing that you can buy food that doesn't have stuff in it that you can't pronounce and/or don't know what it is.  So the journey has begun.  Come, Magnify the Lord with me!

I ran some errands after that, and on the way home, saw Rep. Perkins and his wife again.  I offered them a ride (Magnify the Lord; I have a car!), but they were near their house and chose to walk.  I came home and dropped off my stuff, then went to put the car in the lot.  The guy beside me had completely dug himself out, and there was now a huge mound of snow where my space had been.  I kicked at it for a while, threw some ice boulders out of the way, and then drove around three or four times and just packed the ice down.  I was able to take all the excess snow off my car, and leave it parked, albeit on a little snow mountain.  Magnify the Lord!

Back home, I decided to do a pre-Fat-Tuesday mini-feast.  I didn't dare disturb the car, so I had Indian food delivered.  The order came to $24.00 and change. I gave the guy a 20 and two fives, and he's like, "don't you have any change?"  I looked at him, and considered taking one of the fives back and giving him some change.  Poor guy didn't understand that I was giving him a tip until I walked him through it:  "OK, how much is the order?"  "24.60."  "OK, so here's 25, and then..."  He still didn't get it until I expressly said "Dude, this is for you."  Magnify the Lord.  America is the only place I know of where you can be unable to read, write, or speak the dominant tongue, be unable to count, and still be able to make a living.  Let us Exalt God's Name Together!

So I had my Rasmalai, a chicken samosa (and I have another one) and I have some Saag Paneer. I'll have to consume all that before Wednesday, as they all have animal by-products.  They are, strictly speaking, vegetarian (well, not the samosa), but not vegan.  I think I'm gonna like this vegan thing.  Being mindful of what you put in your body can't be bad, and my physical training will continue. It will be interesting to see what effect eating vegan for 40 days will have on my body on my endurance, and on my performance.  In my mind, both my arthritis and my posture are going to get better. Magnify the Lord.

So as I'm at home relaxing, I remember the dual showerhead I ordered for Christmas.  It took me all of five minutes to take the existing shower massager out of the master bathroom and install it in the guest bathroom.  It took me a bit longer, maybe half an hour, to install the dual showerhead in the master bathroom.  But I did, and I tested it, and it's lovely!  I won't know how strong the water pressure is until I get in it, but it looks good, and I'm happy to have installed it.  Let us Exalt God's Name Together!

In the process, I had to pick out some tools. I was looking for my pipe wrench but couldn't find it, so I got my monkey wrench which wasn't big enough, so I found my slip joint pliers.  As I was going through my tool box, I gave thanks again for my father, who intuitively knows that a great gift for his daughter is a toolset (it's genetic.  Since I can remember, I've enjoyed tinkering and building things.  Turns out it's because I'm my father's child).  Come, Magnify the Lord with Me, and Let us Exalt God's Name Together!

It's been a wonderful day, a lot has been accomplished, and it's all been because of God's Goodness and Grace.  It's not quite 10 pm, and I'm going to bed.  So come on --  Come Magnify the Lord with me, and Let us Exalt God's Name Together!!!!