"Hey- I Know Her!"

A few weeks back I was sitting with my family and our friend Lisa Jewett in Winners Sports Bar here in Tampa when I heard a familiar voice coming from a TV above our booth. ESPN was showing a Days Inn commercial  featuring a young woman named Jess Penner. I looked up, saw Jess, and instinctively yelled out, "HEY!  I KNOW HER!!!"  This is what I saw...

In the late 1990's, while I served as youth pastor at the First United Methodist Church of Kissimmee, we were fortunate enough to develop a relationship with a little band from Hawaii called Spooky Tuesday.  You can read that story by clicking and visiting their Hall of Fame page. My own connection with them continued through my days in Chicagoland.  I became somewhat of a confidant of the band.  I was among the first to know when Jess and drummer Kevin Penner (who can be seen drumming with Jess's band in the commercial) became engaged.  I was let in on the secret early on when Jess became pregnant with their first child.  I loved Justin, Adnrew, Jess and Kevin like they were alumni of my own groups, and I hated when the band went their separate ways.  

Jess, Kevin, Andrew, our own Darin Miller & Pepe (Justin)

I lost touch with them until I inducted Spooky Tuesday into my Hall of Fame.  In the weeks that followed that event I heard from Justin, Jess and Justin's dad Rick Bundschuh.  Jess and I follow each on Twitter.  I have walked into J.C. Penny's on more that one occasion and heard her music playing in their store.  And then Friday I saw the commercial again, this time on FX.  It still gives me a rush. I would recognize her voice anywhere.


So what is the point of all this, other than a little name dropping?  I saw someone tweet the other day that "youth ministry is a job where you get to do once in a lifetime things over and over again."  That is so true.  And on this Sunday, like every Sunday, I will go to worship with my family. I will sing praise to the God of grace, without whom life would be meaningless.  I will talk to amazing old friends who make me feel so alive and so special. I will remember so many people who have made (and still make) my life so blessed.  There is a reason this blog is called I'd Laugh, But All This Happened To Me!  So many great things have happened, and so many amazing people have passed through my life. So many of you are still in it.  Thanks, Jess, for reminding me that almost everyday my heart shouts with pride, "Hey- I know them!" And thank you Jesus, for loving me.


Because of Jesus,