Crying at Cuba Libre… A first for me

And most likely a first for her too.

I’ve been doing a series of dinners and playing catch up with friends during the evenings and I must say that it is very enjoyable to go to a nice dinner during the week with a close and dear friend and to spend all of your disposable income that you should not be disposing of because, well, um… YOU ARE TRYING TO BUY A HOUSE!!

So last night was dinner #2 as it was only Tuesday and as the title clearly states we went to the fabulous Cuba Libre. The food and atmosphere there is amazing, however, it was the conversation that my friend and I were eating up. She was telling me about her work and I was talking about mine and then suddenly we moved into family issues and emotional dramas and I told a story about Joni Erickson Tada and Corrie Tin Boom and by the time I got halfway through,  “And Corrie said to Joni, ‘One day when we get to Heaven we’ll both dance…'” I hardly said “Dance” and my friend was tearing up and then I was tearing up and then we were laughing. It was like we were watching Steel Magnolia’s or something.

We talked and talked and then went back to her place and talked some more and when I left I found that there were a few things that I didn’t say and that I wanted to tell her. I wanted to tell her the rest of the Corrie Ten Boom story, but even when I started to think about it I got a little choked up and so I didn’t call.

The Sunday morning that I heard Chuck Swindoll tell the story about Corrie Ten Boom and Joni was a very hard morning for me. My family has been going through a whirlwind of struggles so private that I haven’t even dared to share them here where I have shared EVERYTHING about my life – even the testicular sonogram.

So that morning Chuck talked about how Corrie was at this conference and all these people were trying to reach out and shake her hand and talk to her.  Joni Eareckson Tada was also at the conference and if you don’t know her story, then you may not know that she is a paraplegic and has been for some years now. Everyone was trying to get to Corrie at this conference and Corrie was just trying to get to Joni and when she finally came hobbling up to Joni with her cane, she reached out and took Joni by the hand and said, “One day when we get to heaven we’ll dance and we no longer have to put up with this tired, damned world.”

Of course if your life is nothing but honey butter and hot rolls then this might seem a harsh statement. Perhaps you love this world and all that it has to offer, but when you’ve been dealing with extremely painful issues, when you’ve hurt in ways that you never thought possible, when you’ve been broken again and again, then you know, maybe not on the level the Corrie and Joni know, but you know exactly what Corrie meant in that statement.

This world is not my home… I’m just passing through.