watching the night go by

there we were sitting in row q, seats 1, 2 & 3 of the west angeles church of god in sequins--sorry, i meant christ--cathedral with thousands of other people. me, jackie and anita. three highly skilled media professionals ready to write the next chapters of our lives as we happily said goodbye to the not-so-great '08.

we, like so many other people who had entered the sanctuary on dec. 31, were more than ready to get off pity parkway and alter our respective courses. jackie would like her personal life to be as stable as her professional one. anita is looking to get out of a shaky job situation. and me, i just want shalom in the home, a great gig and a cure for my chronic insomnia.

but even though i had a firece headache and the black-eyed peas i'd eaten hours beforehand weren't agreeing with me, everything was on point during the service. the music was inspiring as was bishop blake's message. he had us all convinced that everything was going to be mighty fine in '09.

it already is.

normally, the three of us would not ever be together socially. and honestly, i didn't even want to go and not just because i wasn't feeling well. yet, god saw fit to bring us together tonight so he could reinforce his promise three-fold.

he's got our back.

and that's a good thing because he probably wasn't too happy when all three of us were responding to all those "happy new year" text messages from our friends back east while bishop blake was delivering the word.

it must have gotten through, however.

jackie, anita and i entered west a last night with an unwanted and uninvited friend called complacency, but we left this morning with our new best friend named hope.