Friday, February 27, 2009

Last time & Next time

Hi everyone! Last Thursday we had a great time celebrating and hanging out together at McAllister Center. We enjoyed the goodness of God by eliminating a sense (hearing with ear plugs, touch with gloves, sight with blindfolds), one for each person. We then tried to differentiate 2 coins from each other, to hear a whispered message, and to see what was going on. It could be viewed as frustrating, not being able to effectively do one of the those 3 things as well as usual, but we chose to see the temporary deprivation of the sense as a chance to appreciate it and our other senses even more! We took time to celebrate the coolness of the God who made us so amazingly and had some laughs doing it!

After this time of celebration, we took some time to share any concerns people felt like sharing - most prefer to be anonymous though - and then prayed together, wrote a concern on a piece of paper and exchanged them anonymously. This way we can talk to God about these concerns often over the next 2wks. We believe that inviting God into the middle of the issue not only helps the issue, but brings us closer to each other.

Next, we had some time for discussion and learning. We reviewed the last weeks of talks about all the things we search for in this life. The "mores" of American life - money, stuff, success, health and fitness, relationships, acceptance, religion, pleasure, escapism, etc and how we have talked about them and where they end us up if we chase them with all our might. We reread the passage from Ecclesiastes Ch 1 that talks about pursuing all these things as like smoke- quickly fading. We then tried to begin to grasp how we begin to get away from chasing the "mores" of society and to chasing the More of God. This happens when you begin to notice God all around you, his creatvity and coolness (like we talked about at the beginning) and begin inviting Him to be a part of all the things in your life. When you begin to put your trust in Him for where your life will go in the next moment. This is hard to do, especially when you are totally not used to it, but all He expects is that you begin the conversation with Him at the place you are right now and trust as much as you can right now. Just be straight with Him. We ended with a story about our family and trusting and then gave out prayers inside matchbooks - to remind us that letting go of the smoke of this world is key to living the life we were made to live.

We had a time of celebrating God's goodness to us in that He sent Jesus His son for us by sharing communion, which in this case was Jessica's Famous Oreo Balls and grape juice. It was a strange but really tasty combination!

For those of you who are usually with us and weren't able to, we missed you...if you have never made it, this is typical of our times together - easy going, laid back, fun and approaching the difficulties of life honestly. Searching for some truth about God in a basic and fun way - away from the "usual" of church. We would love to have you anytime. Next time together will be next Thursday 3/5 - 6:45-8:00Pm at McAllister Center - 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.

Hope you can make it - it is often the high point of our weeks!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tomorrow

Hi everyone! Just wanted to remind you all that we will be hanging out at McAllister Center - 20th and Schuyler, Lafayette, from 6:45-8:00PM. It will be a great time - we hope you can join us.

there will be free, excellent childcare, as usual!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Last Thursday

Last Thursday we had a great time hanging out at McAllister Center! We spent some time talking about a time when music changed the way we thought about something, or impacted us in some way. There were a variety of answers to "Boomer Sooner" to the "Wedding March" - I'll let you decide who said what!

Then we spent time listening to 8 songs of very different types of music and rather than just enjoying the beat or repeating the words, we allowed the sensation of the music to enter our minds and fill us with all kinds of emotion and thought. It is interesting how a certain type of music conjures up amazing depth of feeling and associated thoughts to it. This depth reflects the deepness of who we were made to be. We were made amazingly complex and we are thankful to the God who made us that way: able to appreciate such things...to relish them. So, next time you listen to a song, let it move into you and be thankful to the God who made you.

We then spent some time sharing things that were bothering us on paper, anonymously or not and exchanged those with each other to talk to God about them for the next 2wks. It is always a great time to care for each other.

Last, Barbara Mitchell shared with us some of her story as our guest teacher for the night. We have been talking about overvaluing or pursuing things in life and how it destroys us...things like money and success and escapism and sexuality and perfect fitness and religion. Well, this night we talked about overvaluing family and relationships and how even something naturally good like this can destroy if over done. Barbara's daughter-in-law Lisa has been terribly ill for quite some time. She spent so much time worrying about her and her husband, Barbara's son, that she was an absolute nervous wreck. It ruined her ability to live life. She then began to notice, through the help of some friends, that she needed to pursue the MORE - God - and that He could help her live in peace. As she began to talk to Him about this, she began to find that she could love her son and daughter-in-law so much and yet still love God more and pursue Him for their help. This changed her forever and, even though Lisa is still struggling with her health, Barbara is herself again - full of life and joy. It was a real life story of beauty and love. You see, life is not perfect, it is painful, and Barbara readily talked about how hard it was for her to move her primary pursuit from her family to God, but it is so worth it!

We concluded with some homemade Zucchini bread for communion and went our ways!

If you missed the chance to be with us, we hope you will be able to make it next time, 2/19/09 - 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister. Free childcare, as always!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Cimetaro Part #2

Hi again. As I have continued to think about the little old lady and her flowers and the significance of this to our lives (and to keep you from having to read an entire book in the last post), there is another thing that the whole scene of her with her flowers heading off the boat at what we perceived as the "wrong" stop that I wanted to write to you about.

You see, I am sure that when that little older lady was like Melissa and I, 35 and 37 respectively, she had no inkling of the fact that this would someday be her - someday taking flowers to the cimetaro. Her life was no doubt full of smiles and laughter and fun and joy and work and stress etc, etc. But life does not always go as we plan it. So many times we set up our lives running for, pursuing, chasing after something - our mission is to make enough money to..., to find the perfect guy/girl..., to raise the perfect family..., to prove those people wrong who said you'd never be anybody..., to have tons of friends and be loved by everyone..., to be strong and fit and be perfectly shaped..., and on and on. And then we wake up one day and realize that Mr. Right is not fulfilling us the way we thought he would, that we either are never going to make enough money or that all that money never really gave us any deep joy, that the perfect body doesn't make us happy, because it only draws attention to parts of us that will simply be saggy and droopy eventually anyway, that the perfect family doesn't exist and that our kids may just become delinquent no matter what we do...

Life under the American Dream of health, wealth and prosperity sometimes leads to a lifetime of investing in the things that end up leading to disease, internal poverty and failure of character and dissatisfaction with life.

The little lady at cimetaro reminds us that life does not always end up the way we envision it - in fact, most of the time it doesn't.

If anyone would have told me that 6 years ago this April fool's day, my sweet 29 year old wife would have a stroke when she was 8 weeks pregnant with our 3rd child I would have never believed it. Yet, there I sat, in the Er, watching the left side of her face droop...there I drove with her in the car, speaking nonsense and having seen her so dizzy she could barely walk...there I sat in the MRI control room listening to the voice on the other end of the line tell me that it was a stroke...there she sat morning and night, day after day, plunging a needle slowly into her pregnant belly, quoting, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength," and then pushing the plunger with a grimace. You see, we never expected this any more than the little older lady expected to be stopping at the cimetaro...but it happened...anyway.

I am not going to paint Melissa's hardship as light and cute now, 6 years later. It was awful. Our lives will never be the same. But I can tell you this, there is no way either of us would have made it with our sanity were it not for the amazing love of God. We have decided to redirect our lives into a quest for more of the God who made us and gives us the wonderful gift of life every day. Yes, life has its twists and turns - and I do not understand them all, never will. But all the money I have ever had has never satisfied; all the degrees and education, no; all the fitness and strength, no; all the fame and accolades, no; all the whatever you are running after will never satisfy you unless you run after More - the One More who satisfies fully - God.

If your life has been a quest for things that have not satisfied you. If you see the inability of yourself and your life by itself to fulfill you, consider joining us this Thursday night at McAllister Center - 20th and Schuyler in Lafayette - 6:45-8:00 PM. We are going to talk more about this God who is so cool and so worth dedicating your life quest to. You see, you never know where the next turn of life may take you - but eventually everybody's boat goes to cimetaro.

Hope to see you there.