"Oh, you made us laugh at life!"

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. ~ Helen Keller

This post is primarily for our friends in Holland and at Crossroads Amsterdam. I want to tell you a funny little interaction I had with Jodi Holzhausen in 2003 or 2004.

       Call this, "Behind the scenes between a pastor and elders!"
       Every year I met with two elders to do a performance evaluation/development review on me, i.e. how I was doing as pastor, areas of strength, areas of weakness.
       One year I met with two of our elders who are more on the "business" side of things. That review went well but it was a bit hard on me personally because it felt kind of "black and white" about what I did well and where I needed to grow.
       The following year I asked if Jodi could be one of the elders doing the review, along with Nico or Yvonne or another elder. So we met in my office at the ministry centre. Jodi was 5 or 10 minutes early and came into my office. She was clearly nervous about the meeting, kind of pacing around my office.
       A few minutes before Nico (the other elder) came in Jodi says to me, "OK, I have to be serious now. We're doing a performance evaluation on you." And she tries as hard as she can to get the smile off her face! She puts her hand over her mouth to hide the smile. And then she starts giggling quietly, and then louder.
       I look at her and ask what she is giggling about. She yells out, "I just love you and Susy so much!" And I just smile and laugh with her! It was a classic "Jodi moment" as only Jodi could be.
       We eventually sat down and had the evaluation and it went really well. Jodi smiled throughout, gave some input, laughed a lot, and just made me feel at ease.
       I look back at that meeting and what lasts is two things - first, Jodi lived fully into life, she seized every moment. The second is how much Jodi loved God and was filled with Jesus. That's really what lasts.