Last night it felt like I’d been to a fight instead of to a church. But the late great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon said not to look at second causes, so I hope there’s a good cause behind that disagreement.

It’s complicated. The bottom line is I’m still lookin’ for a church for all nations. It’s sad to think some churches fight over things like baptism or chicken. Where’s the beef when you need it—or don’t need it? Remember those “Where’s the Beef” Wendy’s fast-food restaurant commercials? Wendy’s makes a real good fast-food hamburger and they have beef and chicken too, like McDonald’s. I love those little plain hot fudge sundaes at McDonald’s. (They have free Wi-Fi too). The little sundaes only cost about a dollar, with the vanilla ice cream (or frozen sweet milk or whatever) and the delicious hot fudge. You can taste the plain good vanilla soft ice cream and the warm good fudge that’s not too melt-y. That little McDonald’s hot fudge sundae deserves a shout-out, even without all the nuts and whipped cream, it’s real good.

When I got home I turned on T.D. Jakes and that wonderful preacher was preaching about “Save the Scraps.” Mr. Jakes said just like God used that little boy’s two fishes and five loaves of bread to feed thousands, God can use each one of us, even if we feel overlooked (or disagreed with..I added that). It was good news to hear last night from Pastor T.D Jakes.

Then I heard part of the John Ankerberg show and Dr. Hugh Ross was talking about God and dark energy and how there are 10 billion trillion stars in the universe and each one has a reason to exist and does something good for the whole universe. Dr. Ross talked about physics and galaxy clusters, which I do not understand, and he talked about what’s behind and before us and all around you and me and he said it’s God, a God Who is Personal and Who loves us.

God is El-Shaddai, the All–Sufficient One. According to http://www.el-shaddai.org, God is the All-Mighty One and Christ is All in All, as explained in Colossians 3:1. God is God and not like any other “god.” The website goes on to say Christ completely revealed the invisible God to us when Christ walked the Earth before He went back to His heavenly home. At http://www.freegrace.net, we can read about how God is also Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord Will Provide. (Although it’s scary right now). God, the site says, is “Father-Mother God.” The father of faith, Abraham, back in the Old Testament, knew God sees and God provides.

Last night I walked outside later and saw Ms. Allen, who just got home from the hospital because she had a heart attack last week. I’m not using her real name, but she’s a real person. That’s how bad the stress got, bad enough to cause a heart attack. “I had to call on the Lord to use the phone,” she said. Both hands were numb, but God made a way. We’re glad Ms. Allen’s okay. We missed seeing her out on the porch.

My downstairs neighbor was outside too. She said she’s been having trouble with her breathing, but last night they asked her to sing at church and out came a song. God provided.

Before I went inside last night, I got to see my neighbors and friends and Ms. Ella and Ms. Pat were outside too. I looked over behind me and it was dark, but a man stood in the doorway of his home with a crying baby in his arms. Their silhouette was back-lit with kitchen lights and they looked golden standing there while the man’s baby cried in the night air. I’d been to church after all. We didn’t fight. God provided.

Jesus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let me tell you about my friends and that doesn’t mean there are a lot and sometimes it feels like there’s not one. My real friends are real people in the best sense of the word, but I’m going to give them made-up names to protect their privacy. We have enough people up in our business, don’t we?

While we ate our lunch with the real good sugar-free pudding for dessert, Mr. Berrigan said he took a hard lick in life many years ago, like many of us do. He said you just can’t fully trust anybody but Jesus. If you take a hard lick in life, Mr. Berrigan almost cried, “You’re a good one if you survive it.” He survived.

Mr. Sibley told me he used to be a real drunk and so did I, so I understood what he meant when he said he never could get enough beer. Once upon a time, I never could get enough wine. Mr. Sibley and I stopped drinking alcohol. Mr. Sibley said Alcoholics Anonymous helped him stop drinking. A friend told him the biggest thing that helps you quit drinking alcohol is the desire to quit drinking alcohol. But when you’re in pain, it’s a hard lick to stop.

For me, stopping alcohol included thinking ahead to the consequences of saying or doing or not saying or doing regretful painful hurtful things to others and myself and feeling dizzy and sick and shaky. By the way, all these new laws they keep trying to pass to control or stop addictions won’t work. This is in the Bible in the book of Romans, where it explains that the more laws you make, the more you make people want to break the laws and find new ways to break them.

Although there are certainly times when the law has to bear the violent away, many times the law might leave the gentle captives alone and leave their healer-doctors alone too, when they’re trying to help. Don’t lawmakers and law enforcers know that addictions are sometimes somebody’s last friend on earth and what do you think happens when you try to take away somebody’s last friend?

Today Ms. LeSueur watered the plants in the front window for us and David showed me a Rosary bracelet he got at Claire’s for around $5 and he said he likes both the Miami Heat and Oklahoma Thunder. Mrs. Day said she didn’t feel like putting the Fourth of July decorations up yet. Mrs. Arendt said good-bye when she went outside to the bright sunshine and the other day, Ms. Goodman gave me her cup of vanilla ice cream. We all like to share and give each other little things. It makes you feel better than pudding.

Friendly people like this are hard to find and we are blessed when we find each other. Mr. and Mrs. Zahn asked me to step outside and see their new white motorcycle, which has a “God is love” decal on the back fender. On the gasoline tank is a beautiful, perfectly-drawn black, white and gray sketch of Jesus wearing the Crown of Thorns and there is a picture of His Sacred Heart, too.

Right before we all went our ways for the day, Mrs. Zahn looked at that picture of Jesus while she looked for her motorcycle helmet, which was in the side satchel. She said, “He’s the best Friend you’ll ever have.” Right this minute, it’s possible to need a friend more than anything in the world. Jesus will be our friend. He says so. Jesus’s earthly friends are human, but let’s try not to leave anybody out or send anybody away. I read a phrase in a book one time that struck me about being “born on purpose.” I don’t remember the book title but I remember that important, life-giving phrase by that author. He said we  are born on purpose and not by accident. Let’s try to choose each other on purpose too.

Yes, Jesus and His real friends try to choose each other on purpose when we’re able. Jesus doesn’t like to leave any searching lonely soul out in the cold and He’ll move heaven and earth to find just one friend and bring him or her home with Him, no matter what. You can trust Jesus when there’s nobody else. Jesus will be there for you and for me. He guaranteed it with His own life and death and Resurrection. He’s in heaven right now, at the right hand of God, praying for His friends.

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Baskin-Robbins butter pecan ice cream cone. Photo by Baskin Robbins.

Just last night I went to the grocery store and afterward picked up two scoops of Baskin-Robbins butter pecan ice cream in a cup.

I especially like the way Baskin-Robbins in Cleveland, Tennessee features twinkling tiny white lights in the outdoor patio area and greets customers with a bright neon purple “Celebrate” sign in clear view when you walk in. The place was exceptionally clean and friendly, too.

Not that I’ve tried that many scoops of butter pecan, but Baskin-Robbins butter pecan ice cream must be some of the best. The color is not the cream color I’ve seen in other butter pecans, but it’s a very light tan color with the dark brown toasted pecan bits throughout. The buttery taste stood out, especially when I crunched the toasted pecans. But there was a hint of something…maple, maybe?

Butter pecan is not really a weird ice cream flavor and, according to a USA Today article last summer, written by Bruce Horovitz, seven out of ten Americans buy strawberry, vanilla or chocolate ice cream. But, for the three who don’t, Baskin-Robbins of the famous 31 flavors has offered varieties like French Toast.

This month in the United States at Baskin-Robbins, there’s Tax Crunch flavor, full of chocolate and coffee flavors, along with Love Potion No. 31, a fruity vanilla flavor.

The hint of what I thought might be maple might really be brown sugar, which is featured in a butter pecan ice cream recipe at the Taste of Home website.

Information at About.com indicates that in America, the delightful mixture of cream, sugar, flavoring, all set to salty ice and churned, was served by presidents as well as by one of the most famous First Ladies, Dolley Madison, in 1832.

About.com also noted that in 1848, a woman named Nancy Johnson patented the first hand-crank ice cream freezer, which established the basic ice cream-making methods still used today.

The idea of ice cream, first in the minds of the wealthy and powerful like King Tang of Shang, China, eventually worked its way down and out to the tired huddled masses needing a little break and aren’t we glad?

Sometimes we just stand over the sink and eat ice cream right out of the carton, tryin’ to chill.