Everybody, Always

I have a friend named Randy Phillips. He is an amazing guy who pastors
an even more amazing church called LifeAustin. He also has a band
called Phillips, Craig and Dean. I know it sounds like a law firm, but it’s
not. Randy asked me to come speak at his church one Sunday. He had
called me almost a year in advance and gave me the date for the Sunday
service. I jumped at the chance to be with Randy. What I didn’t realize
until the weekend finally arrived was the date he picked was Super Bowl
Sunday. I don’t watch much football during the season—I’m too
impatient. But I love watching the Super Bowl. Actually, what I really
love is being with Sweet Maria and eating nachos. The Super Bowl gives
me the excuse I need to do both.
I don’t spend very many nights away from Sweet Maria. It happens
from time to time and on overseas trips. The rest of the time, she usually
drops me off at the airport each morning at 5 : 30. She never asks me
where I’m going, and I never think to tell her. I’ll usually go somewhere
for the day and then I fly back home for a late supper. When someone
asks her where I am, she always says the same thing, “He’s on his way
home,” because I always am. There are nights I can’t make it back, of
course. We don’t feel bad about it when it happens; we just try to have
fewer of them.
I’m a pretty energetic person, so traveling and being around a lot of
people works for me. What works for Sweet Maria, however, is to have
me home. Because she is there, being home works pretty great for me too.
So I don’t think of all of the reasons I’m not going to be home; I just get
there. I’ll fly from Atlanta to San Diego for supper and back to the East
Coast the next day. I’ve been doing this for years. I spent over twenty
years commuting from San Diego to Seattle each morning, and I would
make it back home for supper at night. Our kids were in junior high
school before they knew. When they figured it out, they said, “Dad, you
said you worked downtown.”
“I do,” I answered with a grin. They never asked me which city.
I’m not trying to be efficient in the way I love Sweet Maria and our