"Like a three-pound hen..."

At this Friday's PEF meeting, we had a special guest speaker -- Dr. Greg Waybright, former president of Trinity International University and current senior pastor at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena. (He was also a college friend of Jamie's, and knew Chris and Danielle when they were at Trinity, so he has tons of connections to PEF and has come out to speak here a number of times before.)

Since we're in the middle of a series on Proverbs, Dr. Waybright gave us a message on what he called the most fundamental, most important verse in the book of Proverbs: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." His basic point was that if we can truly understand what it means to fear the Lord, this verse will be our compass and guide in all of the many moments of life requiring wisdom (that is, those moments where there isn't necessarily a clear-cut right or wrong answer). It was such a simple, but strong message -- a wonderful exhortation for all of us to fear God alone.

And Dr. Waybright also used one of the most memorable side anecdotes I'd heard in a while...

By way of background, PEF meets in a large open room, with most of the seats grouped in three sections of rows, all facing the front. There's a small fourth section made up of two couches, perpendicular to the rows of seats -- so it forms a sort of L, wrapping around the front of the room. David and I are almost always in the first couch, so though we're off to the side, we're visible to everybody sitting in the other three sections.

Near the beginning of his message, Dr. Waybright mentioned a book entitled "The Wit and Wisdom of Spiro Agnew." One of the gems of wisdom from this book went something like this: "It's like a three-pound hen trying to lay a four-pound egg. No matter how it comes out, it hurts."

There was some appreciative laughter, and then a second burst of louder laughter -- Katie B. and Victoria H. (and I'm sure many others) had glanced over at me at this reference to labor and delivery, and apparently, I had a look of shock and pain on my face... I mean, can you imagine? That poor hen! The students all had fun joking around with me after the meeting about laying eggs... Ah, the joys of being pregnant on a college campus. :)

So I guess you can call me a three-pound hen -- still waiting around for Eggi to make his appearance. But I'm glad that he at least won't be a third again my weight!