Cheating the Church

Many people are probably familiar with Andy Stanley's belief that if you have to choose between cheating the church and cheating your family, you should cheat the church. Not that we give God less than our best. Not that we do less than our very best as we serve our ministries. But God didn't place us in charge of the church (that's Jesus' job); he placed us in charge of our families.

I don't believe I was stretching that concept at all when I ditched the office for two hours yesterday and went sledding with one of my close friends and our daughters. He showed me the good hills that, being a newbie to Morris, I wouldn't know about.

My five-year old, Katy loves to ride down the hills but isn't crazy about walking back up them. So at one point, while Steve and I and his girls were sledding, she was just hanging out at the bottom, making snow angels and such. Well I'm half way back up the hill when I turn around to check on her...it was like a scene out of some 'stranded in a desert' movie.

Katy had made her way some 40 feet away from where she'd been playing, with only a trail of footprints leading to the site of her collapse--face down in the snow. If I'd had a camera, the photo would look like the scene of some tragic accident, but in reality it was just my overly dramatic daughter (I have NO idea where she gets that) trying to get Daddy's attention. She was fine of course, and giggled when I pulled her up out of the snow. She actually got a piggy-back ride back up the hill for her effort.

I believe that God was glad I skipped my job to spend some time at my real job. No church ministry will ever warrant the attention that we must, as parents, pour into our kids. I'm glad I cheated!

What a great day.

I'm pumped up!

Saturday a very cool thing happened. For the first time ever, I was part of a team that gathered to creatively plan a weekend service. Now I could dwell on how sad that statement may seem, given that I've been in ministry for 12 years and planning weekend services for 2 1/2, but I won't. Instead I'm going to celebrate the eight brave people who showed up at my house at 8:30 on a SATURDAY morning, not really knowing what was going to happen. THANK YOU!

It was very cool to see the creative juices flow as we talked about the Big Idea and brought up things to try, knowing that we still had time to pull them off because we were planning 4 weeks out. 4 weeks may not seem like a lot for some of you who've been doing this for years--I know churches that begin brainstorming 6 months out--but for us it was a milestone and on top of that...IT ROCKED! I have no doubt that it will be the best programmed service we've had to this point, and I'm convinced that it's the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks to those of you who came and helped. Thanks especially to those who brought breakfast. I love you all! See you next Saturday.

Satisfaction, Hope and a Snowman

So I'm shovelling snow for an hour and a half, last night. There was between 8 and 12 inches of snow in my driveway. This is nothing outrageous for those of you from the northern half of the country, but for a lifelong southerner, it is still a little hard to believe. I found out why my $5 waterproof gloves--the ones I've been so smug about--only cost $5.

There's certainly something satisfying about finishing the job...pulling the car into the garage over a completely shovelled drive and knowing that I wouldn't have to deal with the ice tracks that form if you drive or park on the snow before shovelling. But there were certainly times when my back was tired, my ears were cold and a gust of wind had just blown most of a shovelful of snow right back into my face--I couldn't help but think about being in Alabama or Louisiana and complaining because of the horrid 50 degree cold. It's hard to appreciate what you have when it's not exactly what you want.

When are things exactly like I want? Will they ever be? Should they ever be? Are we ever supposed to get terribly comfortable in this world? Some say that this life is only a preparation for the next so we should divorce ourselves of all comforts and anything that speaks of permanency down here. Lay up our treasures in heaven.

Some say that we can have our very best life right now--that faith and a positive mindset along with discipline and good behavior can make life now a "heaven on earth." That we can expect the result of our faithfulness to be a measurable blessedness.

I don't know. It seems to me that the bible tells us we can expect both, so maybe it's a seasonal thing. Or maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. I think it often is.

Maybe I should read 1 Peter and think of the people around the world that really have it rough.

My feet are cold. Maybe today the kids and I will build a snowman.

To blog or not to blog...it's not even a question.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to start blogging. Not that I've ever been apt to share my opinions with anyone else. Imagine that!

I don't want this blog to become a platform for more preaching, but then I'm not sure what I want this blog to become. Maybe a tool for introspection. Maybe a tool to ask questions that others may repond to or have answers for. Maybe there aren't good answers, only good questions. Maybe we'll find out together. Maybe I'm talking to myself. Maybe beginning sentences with "maybe" is a tired literary tool that I should avoid at all costs. Maybe...