Keely McSassy

I met my friend Keely when I went to Uganda and she was the trip photographer. From the get-go it was crystal clear that Keely is one of those people who comes equipped with an extra measure of awesome. She is a blast and a half – wise beyond her years and hysterically funny. She can have a super-deep conversation or she can quote “30 Rock.” She has style for days. And I love her to pieces.

So when Keely emailed me last week to tell me that she was going to be in Birmingham for Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God concert (her hubby is a musician on the tour), I was tickled to death. And I would say I cleared the calendar so that I could go to the concert, but the thing of it is that there was nothing on my calendar. Just a big ole bunch of white space. And maybe a short grocery list. But even still, I wouldn’t have missed Keely + concert time for the world, EVEN IF I THAT MEANT I HAD TO CANCEL MY NON-EXISTENT PLANS.

That’s what you call a commitment to friendship, people.

The concert was last night at a local church, so late yesterday afternoon I picked up Keely, and we hopped down the road (NOT LITERALLY, SILLY) to a little Mexican place so that we could eat chips and salsa and drink tea and visit. We blazed through about 75 topics over the course of an hour, and then we headed back to the church so that we’d be there in time for all the purty singing. We hung out for a little bit with a couple of Compassion buddies before the show, and while we were talking I snapped a few pictures of Keely’s accessories because 1) I am just that annoying and 2) I wanted to document her sassy style.

Oh, if I could count the number of times I’d pinned a large flower to my purse – well, I’d have to count all the way up to zero.

And I don’t know if y’all can see the cute necklace or not, but it’s a vintage-looking pendant with a “K” on it.

SASSY.

The boots, quite frankly, were a revelation.

And then – AND THEN – right before we walked to our seats, Keely took the big flower off of her purse and put it on our sweater.

You know, I don’t know that I’ve ever had the fashion wherewithal to MOVE AN ACCESSORY AROUND. The only thing that comes to mind is when I’m getting ready to grocery shop and I take a clippy off of my purse strap so that I can put it ON MY HEAD and get my bangs out of my face.

Or maybe when I was in the 10th grade and used a ponytail holder to tie the bottom of my t-shirt over on the side JUST LIKE I LIKED IT.

Not really the same thing as a kicky flower, is it?

The concert was absolutely wonderful – sort of heartbreakingly worshipful, really – and if the tour is going to be anywhere near you, you should totally go. If you’re not familiar with the Behold the Lamb of God CD, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but if you can’t make it to a show this year, it’s worth the $10 (or whatever) to share this music with your family. It tells the story of Jesus throughout the whole Bible – Old and New Testaments – and it’s just an incredible way to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find a sassy scarf so that I can feel all jaunty and breezy as I plow through some work stuff today. I would attach a snazzy flower to my sweater, but unfortunately I’m fresh out of snazzy flowers. Maybe I should just walk outside and find a sprig of holly. But that might be a little weird. And also prickly.

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

p.s. Several of y’all commented or emailed me to ask if I could share my notes from Beth Moore’s session on discernment at Deeper Still in OKC last weekend, so I wanted to let you know that I posted them over at AllAccess. Hope they’re helpful to you!