So like most of you, I must go in for the annual inspection for my vehicle. I dread it every year, especially with my 1998 Ford Expedition. I keep anticipating a huge repair that will be needed before I am “legal” to drive it again. Last year it was something minor, a parking brake, which only set me back $150. Today, I had another problem.
The young associate was quick to point out that my headlight was not working. I told him that I usually just hit it and it comes on right away (in fact I did this very thing on Thursday evening). Today, I hit it, rather hard, but it would not light up. I was frustrated as he told me that the lamp was okay and it was something to do with my wiring. He was going to have to fail me and I had 60 days to fix it, before I was an outlaw in NC.
I was a little frustrated at having to fix it, and was really cursing praying that the car would just magically click and something would work. As I sat with Suzanne, the manager, who seemed a little bored on a snowy, rainy day, started to work on the light. I watched through the customer glass as he looked like he might just be trying something.
Soon he came and got me and we started talking. As I talked with him, he decided to see if it might just be the lamp (although the lamp did not look damaged at all). He put in a new lamp in it, and decided to pass my inspection. It was really nice of him to go the extra mile.
As he was working on my car he told me about when he moved to our area. He said that he had to move here in a hurry because he had a small child that needed some medical care. When he said had a small child with medical care, I was hoping the child was okay now. I continued to talk with him about things of no real matter and he told me that his child died last February. I told him I was really sorry about that and he seemed to stop for a second. Later, he told me he liked to help people fix their cars and he did it because all the help he received when his son died. I was the recipient of his help today and I thanked him for it. I offered to buy him lunch, but he simply would not accept. Yet, I had a feeling he spread his “pay it forward” mentality to me today. Thank God for good people, I hope I can pass on the favor to someone soon. I slowly walked out, knowing that this story was one that God was echoing in me.
I watched the last episode of Conan the morning after it showed. I admit, that being an “early to bed” person, it is the only Tonight Show I watched with Conan as the host. Regardless of how you feel about the whole situation, have you had a chance to watch it?
I was watching and was extremely moved by the apparent crashing of Conan’s dream. Maybe it was my desire to see him say something that he might later regret, for whatever reason I watched.
Before Will Ferrel’s brilliant rendition of Free Bird, Conan spoke frankly to all his fans. He cautioned towards the end of his speech, “Don’t be cynical, it does not lead anywhere.” In that moment I was taken back to the first time I was disappointed in God’s people.
After the summer before my senior year in high school, my best friend began to follow Christ. It annoyed me mostly, as he would do all the same things, play sports, hang out, and then occasionally would get preachy on us. I eventually got worn out and started to not even want to be around him. I just didn’t feel like he cared about me that much, he was more concerned about getting me into church and “getting saved”. I was eighteen and did not feel much like I needed any “saving”.
I think he caught on eventually and realized that we just needed him to be who he was minus the religious jargon. Eventually, I decided to check out what he was claiming for myself and decided to follow Jesus as well.
My first disappointment was the feeling that I went from being a friend of seven years to a simple conversion story for him to “testify” to others. He never treated me this way, but others tended to make me feel like that. I felt my conversion had been happening for years and could not be captured in a solitary moment.
This view of beginning to follow Jesus is dangerous for me. I struggle with the “raise your hand” to know Jesus prayer. I more think that we need to show people that God will come alongside them and embrace them, and they need to see and feel this through his people. We must work harder on being Jesus’s hands and feet, and a little less his mouthpiece.
So I look to Conan for helping me realize that I have some healing to go through to work through my cynicism of the church. Fancy that? Who will God speak through next? How do you work through your own cynicism?
I recently received a copy of The [expanded] Bible for my review. I found the cover to be attractive and simple. I would dare compare it to an amplified bible, but it seems to bit more than that in certain areas, albeit difficult to find at first. This Bible was worked on by Tremper Longman III (Yale), Mark L. Strauss (Bethel Seminary), and Daniel Taylor (Emory).
This edition of the Bible as paraphrased on page xii serves to provide a more literal meaning of the original text, provide a traditional meaning of the passages, and briefly comment on historical/cultural/theological renderings from past translations. I think on this note this edition does deliver, if you are not distracted by the extra words.
At times, I found the extra comments to be a little much for me (even as a fan of The Amplified Bible). I guess I really wanted this New Testament to be more than it was meant to be. It looks like a devotional New Testament, but it reads like a complicated “commentary-like” bible.
I would like to a couple things to improve the next version. First off, the font is simply too difficult to read. There really needs to be some spacing happening in the text. The text begins to run together for me. I wonder if they could just put the bible text and then the next place put the chapter comments. Secondly, I really believe that an Old Testament should have been included, as there are many references to it (who wants to carry 2 bibles to study?).
All in all, I think this is a great work by these three professors, but somewhere along the publishing line, I think someone forgot to ask the consumer if they would actually purchase it with it’s confusing readability.
Today, we had a meeting at my workplace (an elementary school) to discuss what we would like to see in our next principal. I will not go into the details, but the meeting really helped me realize a few things.
- When you work together twenty years, you really do know someone. There are a quite a few teachers who have taught at my school for twenty years or over. Some of them have even taught in the same grade for twenty years. I realized again what an impact these teachers have made on our community.
- The people I work with are extremely passionate about helping kids learn and succeed in life. We hope better for the kids. We weep and wish we could change the circumstances that some of them are in. In short, we love those kids. Today, I saw again that we really also love each other.
- I heard many characteristics that everyone (including yours truly) voiced in our meeting, but what I kept hearing were characteristics of a Christ-like person. I pray for our future principal, and I hope they will know how to mesh with our community. I also hope our future will know how to lead us into wanting to follow him or her.
Today, I saw a community redefined, and I really felt better for it.
*And to think that I nearly bailed on the optional meeting. It amazes me how the small choices we make often become the most important moments in life.
** I feel a little like Doogie Howser tonight…
Over the winter break, I finished Follow Me to Freedom by Shane Claiborne and John Perkins. Check out the youtube video by Shane here.
I realized more about myself by reading this book. I just want to learn to be a better follower of friends, enemies, and especially of God. I have made some major changes in my life in recent weeks and more will be coming. I feel the ache of creation again. I sense that God is beginning to do something brand new in my heart again. The Holy Spirit is igniting a new movement. It is scary, but I am trusting.
Continue to pray for Suzanne and I, as we:
- Sell our house in uburbia (yes I meant to leave off the s)
- Buy a house in a mixed income neighborhood
- Seek to just be us for awhile before jumping into another adventure
- Find a faith community that reflects our heart and is near our new neighborhood
- We find a way to reach out beyond Raleigh to spread the message of helping others
- Help Suzanne find a book publisher and/or Film Company to purchase a script
I am so thankful for all the people who have poured into our lives. I see the strands of so many people, running throughout our lives. Many good people who love God and desire to see others find the gospel in message and daily bread. So thankful for the heritage, yet also excited to see what forms following Jesus will take in the next decades.
If you know me, you know that I am extremely interested in starting conversations about what it means to be homeless and/or under resourced. This book is a safe way to enter into the conversation. My mother-in-law told stated that it helped her perspective on homelessness. I think books that explain tough issues are hard to find compassion in. This book is full of love, compassion, and you will find yourself cheering, crying, and wondering. It is the most accurate story I have seen put on paper yet.
Breakfast at Sally’s was written by Richard LeMieux. Richard was a successful person, in most people’s eyes. He had a house, car, a pet, a thriving business, a wonderful family, and group of friends who liked him just the way he was. Over time, Richard’s business began to slip and he ended up losing everything, sans his pet dog, Willow. This is a revealing story into the life of a homeless person who finds a better community than the one he previously was part of. Richard experiences many struggles and a few triumphs. His story is about someone who almost everyone has given up on.
This book might even cause you to want to help out in a deeper way, I am sure I can help you find a way to show that love will always win. Books like this give me a hope that we can be more open to helping find resources for the poor in housing.
The biggest gift that I received this year was not not monetary.
On September 11th, I received a phone call from my stepmom that my father was in the hospital in an emergency surgery. He had suffered a torn aorta, which only 10% of people survive. I was frozen with fear that I might not ever see him again alive. I boarded the plane the next morning and I headed into what I thought was going to be the most difficult thing I have ever seen, my healthy and full of life father laying in a hospital bed. I don’t think I have ever prayed so much in my life.
I arrived and was there to see him through the next six days, alongside my stepmom, brother, nephew, and my sister-in-law. Dad has so many visitors that we had to just have some leave a card. He was in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, but they allowed visitors, thankfully. He continued to improve and was released a few days after I left. There have been some scary times since then, but it looks like he is in the clear, as much as anyone with open heart surgery is (which is pretty god these days).
My dad is doing increasingly well, he has lost 30 pounds and is looking good. His secret is “if the food tastes good, spit it out.” Pretty good advice in some respects, especially if you consider Sonic and McDonald’s to taste good. My dad is back at work, doing his best to do whatever he can around his job with the city of Bonner Springs.
I am so proud of my dad and my stepmom. They have had to make some major diet changes and my stepmom has been great about it. I never thought my dad could ever be taken from me so young, but I know (more) now to really appreciate what you have. I am so thankful for the miracle that my father got to witness first hand.
My dad pictured with my old dog Boswell, it captures my Dad’s spirit well. He loves his dogs!
I love you Dad.
I can remember sitting in the my grandparent’s church building in Herington, KS. It was really one of the only places I could call my church home growing up. It is a traditional looking building complete with ornate stained glass windows and large wooden helm built into the ceiling. It was a building that always spoke to me with its concrete imagery.
Here is a street view picture of the church.
I can remember many of the old hymns that we used to sing. One of my favorites was Love Lifted Me written by James Rowe and the music was arranged by Howard E. Smith. The men wrote this song in Saugatuck, Connecticut in 1912 (the same year the RMS Titanic sunk). It is obvious where the inspiration came from, as they lived in a town really close to the Atlantic Ocean, a pier town.
Here are the lyrics to the song:
I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,
Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,
But the Master of the sea, heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.
Refrain
Love lifted me! Love lifted me!
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me!
All my heart to Him I give, ever to Him I’ll cling
In His blessed presence live, ever His praises sing,
Love so mighty and so true, merits my soul’s best songs,
Faithful, loving service too, to Him belongs.
Refrain
Souls in danger look above, Jesus completely saves,
He will lift you by His love, out of the angry waves.
He’s the Master of the sea, billows His will obey,
He your Savior wants to be, be saved today.
This was always a powerful song to me. It has various meanings as you travel through life. It is amazing to think of all the times that God has lifted me out of circumstances or damaging thought patterns. Truly this is my witness that God can lift you out of so many situations, although it is mainly a perspective change, I see the power in accentuating the positive.
Almost 16 years since this day, I decided to begin a relationship with Jesus. I was reading the Robert Schuller book aforementioned in the title, and I quickly realized that there was a constant in every person’s life whom I admired. Each person was a follower of someone or something.
My journey of following Jesus has taken me places where I have been overjoyed, angered, saddened, challenged, and encouraged.
Gwen
Today, as I was purchasing some boots for our friends who we serve at Love Wins, I met Gwen. Gwen mentioned as she checked out the items that she had awoke at 3am and drove in from Durham. I stupidly asked, “Aren’t there any jobs in Durham?” She quickly said, more polite than I would have, “There just are not any jobs in Durham.” So Gwen drives almost an hour in a car, spending $10-12 dollars a day in gas to come and make about 40 dollars.
She told me that she would rather be working than receiving unemployment wasting away. She had been laid off in the past few months and has been struggling to find anything to work at. It really is sad. What is even more sad is that Gwen doesn’t have many options. If her only option is to work at a retail store that is 40 miles away that saddens me.
Kevin
Kevin reached out to me in the past few weeks. He is currently living in a local shelter and is separated from his family because of a lack of funds. He pulled me aside and was crying last week. He told me that DSS had taken his daughter and he was afraid that she would be put into the foster care system. I really felt for him, as I really think he tries to work whenever he is able. He would like to enter into a program, but would not be able to help out with his child as much because of the regimented schedules the programs require (think rules like a rehab clinic would have – curfew, etc…).
Kevin later called me this week to tell me that his sister-in-law would have custody. That was great news, although it will be difficult for him to go and see her because she lives more than an hour away, but nonetheless she is with family. I was so glad to hear the news.
I pray and think about Kevin and so many of my friends who don’t have a home. I can’t imagine what it is like to not have some place to come for a refuge. I also can’t imagine having to work in a minimum wage job and trying to make it. I could be like so many people and simply say, “Get a job, get an education,” but my heart cries and I know that life is made up of the pivotal points in our lives when we make a decision and have to life with it. I believe I have made many right decisions, but I end up thinking that it is so much more who I am surrounded with.
Truly, we are the sum total of our family and friends. I can only hope and pray to be in more circles where I can listen and help people wherever I am.
So, I know this comes off counter to what we “normally” think, but you know I really believe it. We are so good at giving money and other gifts that take little of our time. I wonder if you might challenge yourself this in this season of Advent. I wonder if you might give in such a way that you receive more than you give.
Advent Conspiracy has really made me think over the last two Decembers.
Shane Claiborne of the Simple Way really made me see my life could be so much more in Irresistible Revolution.
Suzanne and I started being involved with Church in the Woods by coming once a month from January 2007 – June 2007. We really felt led to be there weekly were until February of 2008 and got to know a lot of people who have much less than us. We always walked away feeling like we had received so much love.
Around January of 2008, we met up with some really great people, and started partnering with them making biscuits and us bringing clothing/shoes. We eventually became part of Love Wins Ministries, which is a large part of where we live out this whole “receiving” idea.
Jesus has changed my life so drastically these past few years. I am a little more troubled, yet a lot more joyful knowing that I receive so much during the course of my week. It really is beautiful to see the life God has given and is giving us. In the coming months, as we make another big move, Suzanne and I know God is sending something our way and we receive.
Would you consider…
- Handing the box of food to a family and asking if you could come and eat with them.
- Taking the homeless person out to dinner with you and share a meal.
- Inviting over someone who might not be invited to anyone’s house for Christmas.
- I wonder if you might ask someone to pray for you that you might not consider to have it all together.
- Allowing God to speak to your heart and sit in silence, instead of offering up your prayers.
- Giving gifts that require you to spend time with the other person involved.
- Befriending someone who at the front end, has nothing to benefit you that you can see.
