by the seat of my pants

a few weekends ago i went on a surprise {to myself} trip to s.carolina to visit my beloved friend shan shan.  it went something like this: 
1.  i missed her terribly. 
2.  she said "why don't you come down here tomorrow?" 
3.  i said "well, okay!"  & began making plans.


i'm kind of a control freak crazy planner and since i have a full-time job, a {sweet} husband, giant family & ministry to do i rarely do spur-of-the-moment adventures anymore.  relapsing into 'college jen' i trucked on down.  i took my lunch at the end of the day to miss a bit of the good ol' lexington 5 o'clock traffic and really loved my trip down.  i never drive long distances alone anymore.  i'm either with benny or with girlfriends.  i have no complaints in that department but this was just different & good & necessary. 


i sang {loudly}.  mainly to mumford & sons, which if you haven't yet, you really should.  i also found 5 or so sermons that ben had left in my car from last spring break.  john piper preaching on john 5 & 6.  it was awesome.  he basically was just going through the gospel chapter by chapter with  his congregation, breaking it down, figuring it out, applying it.  it was awesome! he spoke truth {the very word of God}.  he didn't sugar coat it; it was real and great and spurred me on. {you can check out the full gospel of john series HERE}. 


two that especially rocked my world in the car were:
the love of human praise as the root of unbelief
If you believed Moses, you would believe me


while i'm being a wild sermon pusher right now i might as well say that you should also take an hour and listen to this.  it has blessed me in huge ways to think about loving my Lord above/before loving his people.  listen {HERE}.  the first commandment being first.  priorities in order.

and that was just the fun on the way down!  geesh.  i arrived about 10 pm, making great time of course, on the doorstep of sweet shan.  i couldn't have been happier to be there.  we visited {that was the best part}, we went thrifting, she showed me where she will one day marry her sweetheart and where we will party afterward in jubilee.  both locations were goregous by the way.  i took pics but i'm not sure that i should be the one "revealing" those oh so special details of her big day.  hopefully, she will be documenting those very soon {ahem, hint hint} for all to see.  we read bridal magazines, planned the most hideous and the most beautiful weddings we could imagine.  we ate.  we went to see black swan. we curled up on the couch with her fur-baby.  we slumber partied.

i hated to say goodbye but had a house full of students to get home to sunday night.  it was too quick of a trip.  i'd like to have stayed much longer.  but it was fantastic.  i hope to go back soon, but i don't know when the next visit will be but it can't come too soon.  it was perfect.

i looked up why in the world people say "flying by the seat of your pants" {here}.  just call me google.