Don't Forget to Pack Your Tambourine!

Early last week I received an unexpected phone call from my sister-in-law, Hubby's sister, Lauren (yes, her name is also Lauren--there's more to that story, not sure if I've ever shared it, but it's for another time) and she had a last minute proposition for me:  she was travelling with a group of ladies to see Beth Moore in Tulsa and one of the ladies had a family emergency come up and wouldn't be able to attend...did I want to go?!?  My initial thought was...YES! What a fun opportunity! Quickly followed by NO! Because that is totally out of my comfort zone.  But in the end...YES!!!  After some urging from Hubby to go for it and also permission from my boss aka Dad to go...I called my dear SIL back and said I was in.  So...on Friday I met up at her house with her & 4 other ladies and we began the trip to Tulsa for a quick getaway.  

Oh, and before I go any further, I should probably mention one more tiny little detail...so the drummer for Travis Cottrell, Beth Moore's long-time worship leader?  Yeah, the drummer is my first cousin and basically my older brother!!!  Which of course gave me all the more reason to step out of my comfort zone and get myself to Tulsa!

The view from our seats...stage is to the right of the drummer aka my cousin!

We grabbed some lunch and did some shopping before checking into our hotel.  And...as one of the main perks of knowing someone in the band, my cousin was able to arrange for our group, 10 of us in total, to have reserved seats on the first and second rows! Talk about a connection!  This was so huge because it meant that we didn't HAVE to be there standing in line waiting for the doors to open to get decent seats.

Our reserved seat signs!

My cousin rocking it out and praising God!  

We had wonderful seats and I was able to witness my cousin be a part of God's incredible work through Beth Moore & her Living Proof Live series.  After the Friday night session I was also able to meet up with my cousin the drummer & his brother--obviously also my cousin, and just have some great quality time with them...and I honestly couldn't tell you the last time we had that--if ever.  I'm a little bummed I didn't get a picture of them--but we were all a little worn out after a long day!  Needless to say, it was one of the highlights of the trip!

Oh, and in addition to seeing my cousins & getting to hear Beth Moore for the first time...I ran into, and of course had to snap a picture of two of my favorite bloggers!  Megan from Tale of the Trees--I seriously have been reading her blog since before I even started blogging & can I just say she is just as precious in person as she is on her blog?  We literally only talked for like 2 minutes, but oh how I wish we could have hung out longer!

And then Ashley from The Vanilla Tulip, who actually was a real-life friend before we found each other's blogs!  She is an absolutely gorgeous momma of 4 who seriously warms my heart and it made my day to see her not once but twice in the gigantic auditorium full of 7700 people!

Besides having the wonderful opportunity to catch up with my cousins & meet some dear friends, I also got to hear some pretty stinkin' powerful words from God as Beth spoke about the story of Miriam, Moses' older sister, and her incredibly important role in the story of Moses & the Israelites.  There were so many incredible pieces of information shared by Beth, but maybe one of the most important ones was this...

"When faith takes you on a journey, don't forget to pack your tambourine!"

You see, after Moses lead the Israelites across the Red Sea, he broke out into a song and Miriam then repeated a chorus of that song when she led a group of ladies in dancing with her tambourine.  When they fled Egypt, it wasn't a slow process.  They didn't have time to just pack up everything they wanted to...they were focused on getting the heck out of dodge, as quickly as possible!  So...why would a woman take time to pack a tambourine, unless she EXPECTED God to do something that was worth celebrating?!?  

Beth's point, and really just one point of many great ones...was that I should always pack my tambourine because I never know when I might have one of those moments when I need to break out and praise God for what he's doing!  

My dear SIL, Hubby's sister,---the two Lauren's!  

Without boring you all to tears with all the incredible nuggets of wisdom I gained from this weekend, let me just say that it was totally a God thing for me to go...and he definitely used this weekend to speak some wisdom into me that I have been needing to hear for a long time. And of course, knowing someone who could hook us up with some fabulous seats wasn't all that shabby either!