That was a quote by a quirky comedian whose theology doesn't match up with the scriptural version of "doing all things through Christ who strengthens me."
But, oh momma, there are some days where it sounds like on-the-nose truth.
Today was such a day.
I was waiting at the coffee shop when they unlocked the door.
Me, the laptop, and a cup of dark roast/fair trade coffee grabbed a table-for-two next to a wall outlet.
The screenplay I was working on was supposed to be a 4-minute animation
...until I talked with someone who knew about such things and politely asked where I was gonna get the $300,000.
Yeah.
That definitely rained on the parade.
The person then suggested I contact a Christian graphic artist to see if a comic book/graphic novel would work.
Soooooooo.
Huh.
IDEA: What if the picture stayed still and the camera moved to give it the "kinetics"?
I emailed the artist and his team to see if 1) they wanted to try something together and 2) if they thought the IDEA might work.
He emailed back that 1) he had just started playing with an IDEA like that and 2) he and his team were in.
Can God bring a plan together or what?
And that's why, this morning, I found myself hunched over a little table by a wall outlet.
Three hours/two cups/and 1 pit stop later, I shut everything down and packed it up. I got home, putzed around, took a nap-(I love Saturdays!), and sometime before dinner, set the laptop up on the small table by the wall outlet and sat down with a cup of the Elixir of Knowledge. (Ohhhh. Deja-vu)
But now when I open up the program and click on the file name, I'm told it "cannot be accessed".
The Elixir of Knowledge sprays daintily across the screen.
"Whaddaya mean it can't be displayed?!!", I roar, "It's right there, idiot!"
The Wife looks up briefly from her book. She's seen me lose arguments with inanimate objects before. Nothing new here.
Move along, move along.
She goes back to her book.
My frustration soon becomes despair.
It's...gone. Gone!
The despair yields quickly to defeat.
Forget trying to write something- I pout at the screen - I'll quit, rent a movie, and stuff my face while watching someone else's idea dance across the screen.
And HIS wasn't EATEN by HIS laptop!
Disgusted, I take the last big, lukewarm swig of Elixir left in the cup.
And that's when it happened.
The Elixir swirled around the Scripture reading for the morning, laying bare a huge golden nugget that demanded to be grasped.
Yeah.
I had no choice but to pick it up and look.
Oh, man. The Three.
The Trio of Death.
The Tre of Terror.
Joey-B, LZ, and Sham the Man.
David's mighty men in 2 Sam 23.
Joey-B took out 800 of the enemy in one battle.
800.
At one time.
No machine gun.
No grenades.
Just up close and personal.
Another battle had LZ tired of running.
As the entire army fled, he turned and stood his ground, one against an army.
He fought so long and so hard that his hand cramped up.
His sword "froze" to his hand.
And when the rest of the army returned, it was to gather the spoil from the dead.
There was no one left to fight.
And Sham the Man - he made his stand in a bean field, like LZ did.
Everyone retreated, routed, and ran.
Everyone but Sham.
And when it was over there was one exhausted Israeli,
a lot of trampled beans,
and piles of dead Philistines.
The Boys of the Bean Field.
The Three.
Never giving up.
Making their stand.
Doing the job God had given them.
No matter what.
Huh.
I wander out to the kitchen for another cup of the Elixir of Knowledge. I walk back into the Dining/Living/Computer/Family Room and as I sit down, I swear I had just waded through knee-high beans.
And so I'm starting over.
Okay.
I'm in, Lord.
No retreat.
But if it does happen, please don't let my writer's cramp be as bad as LZ's.