One Ticket for Crazy Train

"It's very easy to think that 'someone else' is driving the crazy train...
NO! I am driving the crazy train." - Shauna Niequist



Can I just be very honest and say I got a tad creepy fan weird when I met
Shauna Niequist last month? I mean she lives one suburb over, so every day now
I'm on "Shauna WATCH"... at the grocery store, library, intersections.
I don't even know what I'd say to her. Probably just, "Hi, remember me?"
*Shauna reaches into pocket, pulls out cell, calls 911*

One day I'll get up enough guts to e-mail her and ask her to be my Yoda,
my mentor. Show me all the ways, oh wise and wonderful woman. Until then...

For those of you who don't know, *GASP* she's an author and speaker.
Bread and Wine, Cold Tangerines, Bittersweet... ring a bell?

After I heard her speak last month, I went up and got all emotional as I gave her
a big 'ole hug and told her that she changed my life. The drama level is embarrassing.

Besides all the obvious things that she is known for encouraging,
(community, bringing people around the table, doing YOUR thing well,
finding deep pleasure in being YOURSELF, etc.)
she also was shouting: "GET OFF THE CRAZY TRAIN."

She challenged: "What can I GIVE UP in order to bring the most fruit?"
Too much, too loud changes the quality of life and may actually inhibit one
from achieving their deepest, most cherished dreams.

You guys, I am the conductor of the crazy train.
I keep busy so that I HAVE AN EXCUSE not to do what I REALLY feel called to do.
I fill my days with lots of GOOD, FUN, and sometimes even HOLY activities
so that when God comes knocking, I have a pretty, little itinerary to
wave in His face. "Nope, got plans. Big plans. Not YOUR plans. MY plans."

I'm letting this be my burning bush. My sign.
The crazy train called and they hired a new conductor.
I'm saying "no" to more good things so that I can say "yes" to the
great things that God has put on my heart.

Thanks for ruining my life, Shauna.
I hope that through this recap she has ruined your life too.
Let's all eat ice cream and cry together now...
so that we can step off the crazy train and go change the world.