The world...in color

Hi everyone! It has been a crazy couple weeks huh? This time of year is filled with franticness, running to and fro, with more appointments than time to complete them all! Sometimes it feels as if the real wonder and joy of all of it is lost in the to and fro.

So, into thw midst of all this, here's something to think about. Take a few seconds and clear your mind of all the clutter - sit down someplace quiet and give me 2minutes. Now, find something that is a color. I don't care what color it is, but preferably one color.

Now, just settle your mind down and look at the color. Allow your mind to wander about that particular color. What does it remind you of? What memories does it conjure in your head? What experiences do you recall? Maybe brown reminds you of the woods and hunting with your father. Maybe red reminds you of your first bike and the ride (and spills) you took on it. Maybe yellow reminds you of your grandmother's lemon poppyseed bread. It may not be all good - maybe black reminds you of a funeral or white of a wedding day full of promises that were never kept. Whatever it is, for a minute let the memory swallow you up a little. I can almost smell fresh baked bread, can almost feel the dampness of the woods in my lungs, can almost see the smiles of my little ones when they learned to ride their bikes...what do you see? What do you hear? What memories run wild in your mind?

Now, let them run their course and then let's come back to 12-28-10. Consider this: All i asked you to do was think about a color and your mind was transported to vivid memories, thoughts, dreams, smells, feelings, emotions, passions. If you really let things run, you might have even had a heightened sense of your senses as you could almost BE where you were in the middle of what you were remembering. Now, consider this: Your brain did that automatically (ok, I prompted it to some degree, but the direction and memories are yours). It took a color and created an amazing scene.

Do you ever stop and notice color and what is does to you? Do you ever stop and consider that the process of going from the sight of the color to being enveloped in a memory is natural and amazing? You see, some people would argue that the development of all the complexities of humanity is an accident - some cosmic mistake made us here! When we consider color and all that it brings about - the remarkable passion inside us, is there any question that we are wonderfully made? And if we are made, there must be a maker. A maker who gives us all these wonderfully complex bodies and minds!

Now, i would like to suggest to you that you notice. That every once in a while you notice color, let you mind wander to what it conjures in your head and then be thankful for how amazing you are. Have a little chat with the God who made you that way. Allow yourself to escape the everyday rat race of American life and invite the One who made you into the moments of your life. This, my friends, is the beginning of freedom; freedom from being always driven to get more, become more, achieve more, be more, always driving, always pushing, always more, more, more. This will destroy us all. Instead, to focus on the wonder and the things in life that really matter - that is a better way; and to invite the One who made the wonder - that is even better!

I hope this encourages you to find More in your life!

If you are intrigued by this way of going about life and would like to hang with some people who are trying to live their lives this way, we would love for you to join us - all are welcome!

We will be hanging out at McAllister Reacreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, from 6:45-8:00PM, this Thursday night.

There will, as always, be free and excellent child care for you kids.

Hope to see you there!

Wonder in a 12 year old

Hey - ever get so caught up in the craziness of everyday life that you seem to forget what it's all about? Ever feel like your schedule owns you and not the other way around? Ever get to the end of the day and feel like you may have totally missed the point of life?

Well, here's a perspective moment:
My daughter, Emily, just had her 12th birthday. Now, as I am being hurled headlong into a world of "cycles" and giggling about boys, a world of dresses and makeup and hairdo's, I am overwhelmed and amazed. You see, on that crazy day - her birthday - which saw 8 - 11 and 12 year old girls spending the night at my house - I stopped for a second, several times actually, and really SAW Emily. There she was, laughing, giggling, running, smiling. She was filled with passion and joy, excitement and awe. She oozes life! She is lovely and amazing. In her i see the true meaning of life - there is something about her life that goes way beyond the everyday grind of get more, become more of the american way.

You see, i remember when Emily was born, she was small and delicate and tiny - she was helpless and she spit up so much that everything in our entire house smelled sour, and yet we didn't care. When she smiled, her whole body seemd to smile - she was amazing - our little blessing.

So, when she was born she was amazing, and when she is 12 she is amazing - all i had to do was stop...and...SEE. I had to notice.

How much of our lives do we miss because we fly right by the truly amazing things that are right in front of us? How much time do we spend on insignificant things when amazing things are there, under our noses.

You see the really amazing thing about Emily is how she is both the same person, the newborn...and the 12year old...both...and together. You see all the people around us, all these kids, they all grow this way - they are all babies, gifts from God and then they grow and develop and they have all that wonder inside them - how could anyone look at the way children change and seriously believe that they are anything short of amazing - certainly no chance that she happened as an accident - She is a beautiful proof of God and His love.

I read somewhere that when God makes us, He is making us because He believes in love so much that He wants to share it with someone - to expand the love(not unlike my wife and i did when we decided to try and have a child) - and that His making of each of us is His gift to Himself! I like to think of that. And I like to think of Emily...and when i do - when i notice her, i sometimes invite God into the moment with me, i thank Him for the amazingness of Emily and her life and His life in her - and in that moment i have broken another of the chains that have been placed on me by the american dream of always getting more - not me - i choose to NOTICE.

If you too are tired of busyness as usual this holiday season, come join us tomorrow night 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, we would love to hang out with you - and you will not regret it!

Tonight!

Hey everyone! Ever feel like our society during this season is taking a bath in the "if you buy it, you will be happy" idea of life?

The problem is that what we find the day after Christmas each year is that all that buying is not what really satisfies us - living life appreciating the wonderful and amazing parts of it - is what really makes the most of each day.

Tonight we will be hanging out and trying to learn better ways of doing life.

We hope you can join us!

6:45-8:00PM McAllister Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette

Outreach 2010 - Fall

Hey - wanted to update you on More than more's Community Outreach from 10-28. We spent a fantastic day at McAllister Center (which is where we get together every other Thursday, 6:45-8:00PM)! We gave away hundreds of pairs of shoes and free medical care and prescriptions on that day. It was a wonderful thing to be able to share all that we have been blessed with with other people! I even got 3 hugs from one lady!

The great thing was sharing how much what is happening in our lives has made us care about what happens to others around us - we dared to really notice them - to see them - to see their smiles at new shoes and to see their cold feet (flip flops on that 30 degree morning was just not right and neither is babies whose mom's can't afford shoes and so are barefooted!).

We dared to look way past what society may say about them to what the One who made them would say - that they are wonderful and beautiful and meaningful and amazing!!!

That was the life-changing part of that day - the noticing of the people and the giving of love and acceptance to them - for no other reason than that we have this love in our hearts that needs to be shared!!!

You see, the More than more way of living, daring to go past the usual American way, opens up life - God begins to change the way we think and act and almost before we evev realize it, we are putting on orange shirts and giving out all the love we can, because it seems to ooze from us!

This is the kind of life we are learning! We hope that you will consider joining us next time we get together - 11/18/2010 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette - all are welcome...

Maybe the American Dream...

It's not hard to look at our world and wonder. I wonder about our future - the future of our country, of our lives, of our world. With the unbelievable debt of our country growing, the trust of the people of this world fading, and the tendency to live a life fully focused on whatever makes ME happy in this moment, the world seems to be bankrupting itself while feeding on selfishness and short-sightedness.

Yet, only a couple generations ago the "American Dream" seemed to be making this the "Land of Opportunity." The people who came here to this country from all over the world, many owning nothing but the clothing they wore, seemed to have a strange sort of happiness and optimism - yes, it was hard and they sacrificed greatly, but they looked to the future for what would become of their family in generations to come because of the love, sweat and tears they poured out - they saw the future with hope and joy!

Now, we have, as a country, achieved all that they set out for us. We are successful - no less than global domination. We have an unbelieveable life - with cars and tv's and warm places to live - looking around the world, we see that we are remarkably close to the dream our dreaming past generations had for us. Yet, are we REALLY happy? Do we find that the end of the American Dream is satisfying and peaceful? Do we find that we savor the moments of our days and spend much of our time just smiling at the wonder and amazingness of our lives?? In each 24 hours, do we find that the majority of our time is spent doing the things we would do if we really could choose what we wanted to do? Do we put our heads on our pillows each night and find the smile hard to escape us because of how fulfilling our lives are?

I think you will find if you look around our country, around your neighborhood, around your house, you will find that the answer is, "No."

So, if we are not happy and full of joy when we have made it to our ancestors' dream for us, then where have we gone wrong? Why were they happier than we are? Why are we so harried and frustrated and stressed out?

The truth is that we have misnamed the American Dream. The real dream of America - the joy and wonder and hope of this country - is not found in success and achievement and power and money...it is not found in pleasure and fun and self-pleasing...it is not found in escape or even in religion and being very successful at your belief system.

The real wonder and amazingness of this country - that made this country great - is love. It is a willingness to sacrifice for someone else...a willingness to see the beauty around and savor it, to be satisfied with what you have in the moment and yet to keep trying to become the best you can be...a lifestyle that lives like each of the people i encounter in a given day is just as important as i am and that i should treat them that way...a desire to see someone else have a great life when i can help them, and to look for ways to make that happen...a really deep knowledge of what is really important and what is not in this life, and a life that shows that you really believe it...


The problem is that it is hard to live this way - there is virtually nothing in our society that is encouraging us to live this way. In fact, everything teaches us to live exactly the opposite. So, how can we return to the real American Dream?

This is what More than more is all about. These things are what we believe in at More than more and we are looking for ways to live this out, to change over our lives to experience life in the fullest. You see, there is a fantastic God who is so interested in our lives and He is so amazing that He set the world up to be lived in this "true" American Dream kind of way - that is why living that way is so amazing!! At More than more we notice the wonder of life and the people around us and this keeps our focus on what is really important. Plus, we invite this amazing God into the moments of our lives and He helps us to see life differently - and we have the chance to celebrate life, not just plod away at it until we die.

It is a great way to live!

We would love to have you join us - we will be at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, 6:45-8:00PM tonight, the 4th of November and then again on the 18th, same time - we would love to have you join us!

the wobbly leaves

I was sitting in my tree stand the other day. It was the middle of the day - not the best for encountering a deer necessarily, but a great time to just take in the wonder of the world and talk to God about life.

So, it, of course, is fall here in Indiana and the trees around the stand are an amazing array of colors, the smells are almost overpowering of the fallen leaves and the woods. It is like God decided to explode his color pallette and scent factory all over!

So, there i sat and as I took it all in i noticed a funky little leaf. It actually was 3 leaves, on one stem. They were sitting leaves down, with the stem up, wedged in the crook of the stem, on a branch. With each gust of the wind, the 3 little leaves swayed back and forth and yet they did not move. They just went on swaying back abd forth, back and forth, back and forth. These little leaves had already fallen off the tree, and yet they had not fallen to the ground. I thought it was kinda sad.

Here were all their brother and sister and cousin leaves falling to the ground, where they would be used by the forest to make that beautiful smell of the forest and eventually become fertilizer to make the next year's soil even richer - their lives would be used up for the life of the forest - a wonderful and meaningful purpose. Either that or the others were still on the tree - some were there giving life to the tree - taking the energy from the sun and giving it to the tree - a wonderful purpose and a great life to be sure.

Then there was this one silly little clump of leaves - it was almost like they could not decide what they wanted to do - they were not heading back to the tree to give life into it and they were not falling to the ground, where their lives could be used to make something else much better. Nope, there they sat, determined to stick it out where they were, flapping in the breeze, no purpose, no meaninf, nothing, just watching out for themselves!!

So, the more i looked at the 3 little leaves - wobbling around - i felt sad. i saw myself in those 3 little leaves. i saw America in those 3 little leaves. i saw a man who talks about giving himself, but lives in luxury. i saw a man who talks about sacrifice, but who wines when he gets hungry. i saw a country that talks about loving a neighbor but does nothing about it. Truth is, it is how we act, how we live our lives, that tells what we really believe and think is the most important thing - not what we say, or what creeds we recite, or what church we attend or what humanitarian group we are a part of.

You see, the more i say one thing and do another, i find that i am just like that cluster of leaves - pitiful - unable to go one way or the other - unable to make my life really count for anything, unable to live for any purpose - just flapping in the wind.

i choose to not live that way - i choose to give my life - to jump off the tree and make a difference in the world around me. Is is hard? Yes. There is always someone silly hunter who commes along and tromps on me - i get bumped and jostled and even peed on sometimes (sorry if that's too crude). But the way of life that REALLY matters is always one that requires some being tromped on, some pain.

But, it is sooooo worth it. I meet hundreds and hundreds of people whose lives are empty - meaningless - they realize that their lives really matter for very little - they are flapping in the wind - never really comitting to anything. But, when they begin to see that there is something More to life than just the usual, they come alive - their lives begin anew - with fire and passion and excitement, with healing and restoration and even joy. You see, when I jump off the flapping branch and choose instead to dive in head first to be used, i find myself face to face with people who need help - and when they get help, embedded in the life and love of a person, they find meaning and value in their lives that they did not know before.

This is where life explodes with wonder! This is the heart of More than more.

We choose to no longer follow the usual way if selfishness and flapping around with whatever breeze happens to blow by - no we choose to give up our lives, to jump in head first, to make a difference!

Tomorrow this is what we will be doing at McAllister Recreation Center - we will be giving away hundreds of pairs of shoes, and dozens of prescriptions and doctor visits. We will be jumping off the branch - and it will be fantastic!

If this kind of life sounds like something you'd like to learn more about, we would love to have you join us next Thursday - 11/4, from 6:45-8:00 PM, at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette - of course there will be free childcare for your kids - we hope to see you!

What do we do with the massive pain of life?

Ok, so even though what you will read primarily on this blog is that More than more is a group of people with a hopeful outlook on life - that we are searching for something More than the usual stuff that Americans spend their lives pursuing and we are finding life better and more meaningful because of it - we are also not so silly and delusional that we totally miss the MASSIVE amount of pain that life seems to dump on us.

Not that it is just "us" at More than more - it seems to be universal - all people, everywhere, have MASSIVE amounts of pain. Now, granted, some have more than their share and that I totally don't get, but by and large, all people have tons of pain in their lives.

Pain seems to be one of the things that we all have in common - and a lot of it is random - not caused by us, not asked for - just happens.

So, I wanted to spend some time this last Thursday giving some voice to the fact that I totally see the pain. We, at More than more will not run from it. I have spent a lifetime around church people who deny or ignore or "paint a happy face" on their pain (and attempt to on everyone else's too). I have heard over and over again, "Just give it to God." or "Let go and let God." or "What dooesn't kill you will make you stronger." among others - and while there may be some truth in these - they never seem to be very conforting when the doctor throws around the Cancer word, or your spouse has decided that they love someone else.

What would and does bring some degree of comfort is to have some people who actually care about you. Not for what you can provide to them (because in the midst of pain, you only provide them pain). Not for how good looking you are or how wealthy you are (because who looks great with a snotty nose and tear stained cheeks and how many of us are actually wealthy anyway?) But people who actually care about you. People who will listen and hear, people who will hug you if you need it and give you space if you need it. People who actually remember that you are struggling the next time they see you, because they listened. People who might even call you if you were struggling rather than making you call them. That helps.
In fact, it is so much easier to make it through another day in the middle of the pain that we can actually consider the idea that it could someday end - that we might someday become somebody better because of it. But it only feels this way because the idea is all warmed up by the love of the people around us.

So, this is part of what More than more is all about. We truly care about people - yes it is true that we are a messed up bunch - and we have our share of issues too, but we really care about people. There's something about this More than more way of living that takes us there. And it is so much better than anything else I have evr found in the midst of massive pain.

So, we don't ignore pain. We just live through it...together.

a night to remember

Last Friday, rather than getting together and hanging out at McAllister, we spent the evening in someone's home who really needed some help. Instead of just talkingabout living life differently, we lived life differently for real.

It was fantastic to work together as a team and reach into the lives of some people who needed someone to give them a break. You may not have noticed, but life seems to give out plenty of bad breaks, not to mention the fact that we sometimes make decisions that bury us. When all this comes together, life can be downright hard.

Friday we spent the evening with a family who has had things really hard lately. We spent the evening working alongside them and it was great to see them encouraged by the help we gave them, but even more by the fact that a bunch of people loved them enough to take their Friday evening to spend with them, doing whatever they could to help.

You see at More than more we believe that there is something More to life than just the usual American way of always trying to just get ahead another step - there is a life that is filled with meaning and purpose and even joy - and we live it out in our day-to-day lives.

We will be back at McAllister again on 10/21, 6:45-8:00PM and we hope to see you there. McAllister is just off 20th and Schuyler Ave in Lafayette. If you are tired of living the get more, become more, achieve more, buy more, lifestyle of this world, come join us - we wold love to show you More.

The rocks by the sea

10-3-10
Today I found a wonderful rest and I wanted to tell you a little about it. We slept in – can you imagine? I slept in, alongside Melissa, until 10:00!!! We woke to the alarm that signaled 30minutes to the end of the free breakfast downstairs (6:30-10:30 and I wonder who was up at 6:30?). We finished breakfast and, as the cappuccino began working, got ready to go to the beach. Most places are not open on Sundays in Sicily (what an idea!! – I am wondering if the founder of Chik-fil-A is from Sicily?) and so a drive in the country and then catching some rays and basking by the Mediterranean sounded relaxing on our first day.

So, we drove off into the countryside with Melissa jokingly navigating but mostly soaking it all in and taking pictures and videos. The lady in our hotel said that only about 10miles or so away is a beach called Arenella and so we headed off in that direction. We saw the signs and drove that way, trying to look less like tourists and more like Italians (which means lots of crazy driving). Well, somewhere along the way we must have missed the sign for Arenella and instead turned a wrong way. Sometimes this would bother me intensely, but today I did not care if we had some adventure along the way. So, as we went, we began to not care if we made it to Arenella at all, but mainly just that we got to sit by the water and chill out for a while. So, at one particularly steep one lane road Melissa said, “Hey, look bikini girls! I bet there’s some beach down there!” So, we drove a little further, turned around and then decided to try the one lane, steep hilled, road.

Now, Melissa does not drive stick shift vehicles at all and so she has not clue what it is like to drive down a road like that, much less to parallel park on it and not roll back (or front) into anything around you, so to her this excursion was wildly fun, to me a bit stressful, but we have good insurance on the rental (thank goodness!). After getting parked with no dings and no hit walls or cars, we walked down to the water to find that this was not a beach after all – it was actually just a whole lot of flat rocks by the Sea, where locals gather to sun themselves and relax away their Sunday afternoon.

There were very few people there and it looked nice and so we agreed it was worth a try. There, down the rocks from a bunch of Sicilians, we had one of the most peaceful and restful days ever. We read and talked, prayed and napped, had lunch and just had a fantastic day!

After we were done there, we decided to drive down to Arenella just to see what it was like. A few miles down the road we found a lovely little beach, with tons of people (and it was 4:30 PM) that had lunch stands and chairs and was bustling and busy, with kids and their paraphernalia coming at us as soon as we arrived. We hurried to get away from there and then headed back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. But here’s what I learned:

Sometimes the best place for you is not the place you were looking for.

We went looking for the beach…we found the rocks – the rocks would have been anticipated to be hard and pokey and unpleasant, but they were perfect! It was the ideal place, and if we would have forced our way to the beach, we would have never found the perfect place. The problem with finding the perfect place, though, is that often times it requires you to allow a different idea, something you never considered, to enter your mind.

So many times we Americans are so wrapped up in our routines and our ideas (and everyone else’s around us for that matter), that we forget to really notice that the best place for us, the best thing for us to be doing, the most wonderful, fulfilling and amazing thing may be something that we drive right by and miss, each and every day!

So, my advice to you (and me), is to try in this day to live life willing to notice life around you – open your mind – have conversations with God about where it would be best for you to be. Open up the possibilities and allow the schedule and agenda that you cling to so tightly to gently float away and allow your life to open up into brand new steep hills and cool sea waters.

What do you SEE?

We talk a lot about noticing at More than more. We want to try to find something more to life than just the usual get more, achieve more, buy more, become more of American society. One of the ways we do that is to notice. We see the amazing things about life and make it a point to notice them.

But, the thing about noticing is that we have to see something to notice it...or feel it to notice it...or smell it to notice it... We have to stop long enough to notice - and we stink at this in America. Ever wonder why impoverished people in 3rd world countries seem to be so happy and we have all this money and we can't seem to stay happy with our food, our houses, our spouses, our TV, our entertainment, our family, our ... You see those folks have not choice but to notice - they see what is around them (partly because they don't have enough of anything to distract them) and because they see what is around them, they often times have joy in the most simple and amazing things in life - the things that we miss. Now don't get me wrong - the idea is not to introduce suffering and disease and poverty and poor health. The idea is to get us Americans to stop and notice...

The movie Avatar is relatively recent and is a fun visual-fest for movie watcher, if a bit cheesy when all is said and done. We watched a clip from the movie Thursday night as our jumping off point.

What, you may ask, could be so interesting about this movie that a bunch of people who are trying to find something More about life would find it worthy of the central theme of their time together? Well, I'm glad you asked!

The movie is about these people who live on another planet. They live relatively simple, but full of joy and peace (i know, i said it was cheesy, ok?) But the cool part that i love is the clip we watched - it's the way they greet each other. Now, before i tell you, think about the people yo have greeted today, maybe "Good morning" or "Mornin" or "Hello" or "Hi" - usually something short and not too involved - usually without even seeing the person you are talking to.

Well, these folks greet each other with, "I see you."

This, I love! What if every time we greeted someone we saw them - REALLY saw them?Looked into their eyes and saw who they were, what was troubling them, what they were celebrating, what they were hiding? How would our lives change?

The cool thing about More than more is that even though the group of people who come and hang out there every other week could not be more diverse in their education level, their financial standing, their social status, their age difference and on and on, they SEE each other - and they don't just see, they care - they look into each other's lives and see the hurts and the pains and the joys and the wonders and they care. And it's not just because they know each other well - they do the same thing for new people who come! You see, these people, they are choosing to notice! They are choosing to see.

Now, this has not made their lives easy, or problem free - in fact we struggle with many things, but it has begun to fill their minds and hearts with more hope and more joy and more meaning. They are finding More.

If this sounds like something that you might be interested in, we would love to have you join us!

Our next time together will be 10/8 (this is a major change as it is a Friday night instead of a Thursday)and we will be going to someone's home and helping them with some stuff they need some serious help with. This will be 6:45-about 8:00PM that night and we will be leaving McAllister Center (just off 20th and Schuyler AVE, Lafayette) at 6:50PM. If you want to join us, be there and we will take you to where you need to go! It will be a great time - it is always amazing to see the responses of those who we help and those who are helping!!

The time after this will be back to normal - 10/21 - 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister - as always, there will be free, wonderful, childcare!!

Here are the dates to the end of the year, as well:

October 28-Community Outreach (8AM-5PM roughly at McAllister - we will be giving out shoes/boots to those in our community who need them and giving free medical care and medicines)

November 4

November 18

December 2

December 16

December 30


Here's hoping that you'll SEE...

From Last Thursday

Hey! Do you ever get tired of the usual American way - always trying to get ahead, only to find that when you get "ahead" there's not much satisfaction there? Do you feel like there mustbe something More?

This is what we are all about at More than more. We are a group of simple people, no massive organization, no federal funding, just us, trying to find a better way to live this life.

Last time we had a great time talking about, of all things, amusement park rides. It turns out that there are a lot of us that really like them, and a few who don't at all.

Well, we talked most about the really fast rides, like roller coasters and we actually talked about this ride called Disaster Transport, at Cedar Point. This is not just your every day roller coaster, it is completely in the dark! Now, this is totally unacceptable to some of the people in the group, and I must say, it is a big more jerky than your usual roller coaster ride.

Now, here's a question for you: Why is it not something some of the people would want to ride, when they will ride coasters in the light and why is it more jerky than other roller coasters?

The answer is kinda obvious. Even though the roller coaster is going like 60 miles per hours, when we can see, we can anticipate what is coming next and our body naturally compensates for the movements that are coming without even realizing that we are doing it! Literally, our eyes see the upcoming drop, react by telling our brain and our brain tells each muscle group to contract in just the right way to adjust our position and weight so that we react perfectly!

This is amazing! How complex our reactions and yet perfect they are!! Some people would try to convince you that this is all an accident, but let's be real - this is amazing and wonderful and God made us this way!! The amzingness of Him is around us all the time.

So, the next time you go a the fair, or a carnival or to an amusement park, notice now amazing your body and reactions are. Stop in your head just for a second and invite God into the moment. Thank him for how amazing He made you and ask Him to part of your life and your day.

If you begin to live a lifetime of noticing, you can break out of the American trap of empty "get aheads" and on to something More.

If you are curious or want to know more, we would love for you to join us - we meet simply in a community center - the times we share are light and fun and people's lives are changed there!!

Next time will be next Thursday night, 9/23, 6:45-8:00PM, at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette. Hope to see you there!

Summer Community Outreach 2010

I wanted to take a minute to tell you about our most recent Community Outreach day – it occurred 7/27 and was at CFRC Southside Community Center – 4th and Fountain St’s – Lafayette.

We truly had a fabulous time! We hung out the evening of the 26th and got all the shoes we had purchased ahead of time organized – it was fun to be together. We talked about a few songs – the first was “I’m letting go” by Francesca Battistelli. In this song, we are reminded that we must let go of what we had thought our life was supposed to be, if we want our lives to explode with life. Then we heard “Awake and Alive” by Skillet. In this song, we are reminded that we need to take a stand – it is time to know what we believe and not back down – it is our rallying cry – we will make a difference – even when it’s hard and means that we have to sacrifice. Then we heard “One Day too Late” which reminds us that we often may feel passion and know what we believe but then we figure it’s ok to just do it tomorrow. This is not the way – we need to act now – no waiting, live the way of giving life and noticing the amazingness of God today and inviting Him into the moments of our life now and noticing the amazingness of those around us and their pain and beginning to make a difference in our world.

We went home ready to charge at the Outreach day. We then spent the next day overwhelmed by the needs of our community. We finished the day having given out around 1000 pairs of shoes and 45 office visits and dozens of prescriptions. But, more than shoes and medical care, we gave out something more valuable: We gave unconditional love and real care to people – we let them know that they have value and that they matter, no matter their financial status, their situation, no matter what. To watch people who are hardened by life’s circumstances and living without for so long melt in the face of love and care for them when they realize that this is not some fancy governmentally sponsored organization caring for them but instead people from their own town who care about them enough to share their lives and their vacation time and their money to help them in their troubled times. It is wonderful and terrible – to see the pain that exists in our own town. It might be easier to never even see the pain in our town, but then we would never make any difference…

We had so many who were so thankful and some who wept at the giving and the love they were receiving. But it is also so painful to see those who have been betrayed and hurt for so long and have become part of that whole system and they complain at us for not having the brand of shoes that they want and hurt us when we are not fast enough for them – yet we realize that if anyone is ever going to break through this hardness and hurt, someone must love through this, there is no easy way around (I must tell you that I am so glad that someone dared to love through my manipulative and hurtful, angry past – for if they would not have, I would have been lost in my pain forever). Plus we also realize that we must open ourselves up to these people if we are to help those others who so badly need help who would not ask for help if we were not here. The More, of More than more that we realize makes life worthwhile and gives this love in our hearts – Jesus – this was how He lived – taking the abuse and the pain, absorbing the hurt and hardness of those who were products of the system in order to help those who needed His help. We choose to live this way – and we trust that as we keep living He will give His life into us, His strength when it seems the hardest.

At the end of the day we all met at Dog n Suds for dinner. It is amazing to share such a time together – it is hard, but wonderful, to see so many people’s needs met in one day – if there are 100 thousand people in Lafayette, we put shoes on 1% of the population of our town – can you believe there are that many who don’t have good shoes to wear?? Those people left knowing that they matter to real people and with comfy feet! What a great way to spend a day!!

This is what More than more is all about. We are tired of lip service commitments to those who are hurting – we are tired of expecting the hurting to come to us – we are going to them and are determined to show people that they matter.

You see, we are tired of the American dream of get more, buy more, achieve more, grapple and fight and claw your way to the top – more money, more job, more work, more success, more sex, more everything, and yet we are never satisfied, as individuals or as a society – broken marriages, betrayed friendships, hefty credit cards bills – they never make us happy or fulfilled in our hearts. We want More. We notice More in life and we share in this each time we hang out – every other Thursday night at McAllister Recreation Center just off 20th and Schuyler, in Lafayette. The next time will be this Thursday – 8/26 – 6:45-8:00PM. We hope to see you there!

Last night

Last night, we had a fabulous time together. We dared to take some time together to look at life differently - to notice something more than just the usual American way of more more more and it was a great time.

We started with some time to relax and little and let the stress of the day fall away a little. It was nice to hang out with some people who care about each other just because - not because of what we have to offer each other, or what we can produce or our social status, but just because.

We then spet some time noticing something ordinary, that is amazing. We talked about hips and shoulders - these 2 joints are both ball & socket joints, but they function very differently. The hip is important for power and support - it needs to be stable and it can move in a lot of directions, but not as many as the shoulder. The shoulder on the other "hand" (ha ha)is much more mobile, but has much less power to it. It does not need as much power, as it does not support our body weight, but needs to be mobile, so we can do stuff with our hands. We took a look at these joints and realized that the hip socket is very deep and the socket of the shoulder is very narrow. The deep socket of the hip makes it more powerful and almost impossible to dislocate. the narrow socket of the shoulder makes it very mobile and allows it to move in a gazillion ways so that we can use our hands and arms to do stuff, but is much less stable and, as you know, is much more prone to dislocate. Now, when I look at the amazingness of the shoulder and the hip and how they just happen to have the perfect design for the function we need, I am overwhelmed. The system works perfectly, the way it is supposed to. Now, some people would have you believe that this happened by accident - that all this happened just because it worked out that way - this seems like an assertion that takes much more of a leap than just believing that these joints were made this way by a wonderful creator who wanted us to have bodies that worked the way we needed them to.

So, the next time you bend down (using your knees to bend...)notice the power in your hips - when you hold your child and balance them on your pelvis - notice the power in your hip - and be thankful - invite God to join you in the midst of that moment and savor the fact that while life is hard and we struggle with so many things, there is a great God who cared enough about us to make our bodies work the way we needed them to. When you are working above your head, or reaching to scratch your back, have a chat with God about how cool it is that your shoulder can move like that and the His design is amazing. Invite Him into the moment and ask Him to be part of your life. You may just start noticing that there is more to life than the usual "more" of the American way!

We will be hanging out again in 2wks at McAllister Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, 6:45-8:00PM, 8/26/10. Hope to see you there if you are sick of the everyday American way of more more more and looking to find something "More" than more.

To Review

Hey all! More than more is a group of people, from all walks of life, who gather together every other Thursday night at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave - in Lafayette, Indiana, from 6:45-8:00Pm. When we get together, we have a great time laughing, joking, and growing.

Every person who comes to More than more finds people who care about them for who they are, not for what they make or how they dress or how they act or what habits they have. We simply care.

We spend time each time we get together trying to break out of the usual American mindset of get more, become more, be more, buy more, achieve more, drive more, more fun, more sex, more money, more abuse, more, more, more - that so is destroying our country, our city, our neighborhoods, our lives. We believe that there is so much more to live for. The there is More than more.

We do this by noticing the really wonder filled things about life that we all agree are the reasons we actually love to live - like the love of our family and friends and the birth of children and the beauty of nature - and then taking time to celebrate how amazing life is, as it is occurring right under our noses. We give thanks to the God who made it all so wonderful and we ask Him to join us in our lives. Then, we take time to notice how amazing the people are around us, at More the more and in our homes and our workplaces, our neighborhoods and the places we spend our days. Plus we dare to try to notice their pains too. We Americans are a distracted and sad, broken people - we live in pursuit of the next conquest, the next purchase - our debt swallows us - as people and as a country. We do not savor life becuase we never break free to notice life. And, at More than more, when we begin to notice the people around us living this way, we dare to try to do something about it!

Tomorrow, we will be doing something about it! We will be at Community and Family Resource Center - 4th and Fountain St's - Lafayette - there we will be giving shoes to those who need them and medical care and medicines to those who cannot afford them. This is out attempt to let some people know that they are noticed - they matter - and to help someone else begin to break free from the trap of the "more" of American society into the freedom that can be found in the More of having God in life!

At More than more, we are not a church. We are simply a group of people noticing...

We are actually a group of people many of whom have had a hard time finding church appealing, many times because of bad experiences we have had at church or because of things we have felt would make us unacceptable at church - we are plain basic people who enjoy hanging out and having fun together!

We would love to have you join us next time we get together at McAllister - it will be 8/12/10, 6:45-8:00Pm. We always have free, wonderful childcare!

Being Held is better than not being Held

I am overwhelmed. I am sitting at the western end of Denver International Airport, sitting at a bar with my phone plugged in, listening to “Hold My Heart” by 10th Ave North and looking out at the Rockies (that’s how I know I’m facing west). You may be thinking, “What a sap. Overwhelmed by a song.”

But it is not the song, but the totality of my existence this morning that has me totally overwhelmed.

You see, I am not heading to Denver, but to Albuquerque. I am not going to the “Land of Enchantment” for a vacation or a conference. I am going to help bury Joanna; My cousin Tom’s wife. She died last week, her life on this earth ebbing away because of the breast cancer that grew uncontrollably in her body. 50 years old. The heartbreak is inescapable. In a few hours I will stand face to face with her husband and son and parents…

But, let me go on. Last Monday, my wife’s aunt Shirley, one of the most kind and gentle women I have ever met in my life – the very face of self-neglect and servanthood – went to an outpatient surgery center for a “minor procedure” on her ankle and shoulder. Before starting the surgery all the way, something went terribly wrong and Shirley’s heart stopped. By the time she was at the hospital across the street, she had been without oxygen for too long. Over the week of breathless moments and prayers, we have been given doses of the hopelessness that is Shirley’s existence here on Earth. I listened to my children remind me of God’s ability to do anything and in turn reminded them that our plans don’t always match God’s. Then came the news Tuesday night that Shirley’s brain suffered near complete destruction during those minutes last Monday…and a “minor procedure” became the last memory we will all have of our dear Aunt. We will head soon, as a family, to Atlanta, to bury our dear Shirley and ache for her children and husband so lost and lonely for one more of her “sugars” and hugs.

Not only this, but we have been journeying alongside a dear friend who buried her daddy last Winter and many more who are burying their broken hearts and dreams and addictions and lost selves. We have looked into their weepy eyes on so many occasions – sometimes I can’t sleep at night not because of worry, but because of the shared pain I feel. We want to scream to them that the path is not easy, but it is worth it – that God hears and cares and can show them to something new. We know – we have ached like they do and we have known the relief of knowing that God holds us. As my Uncle Roger (who lost his wife to breast cancer a few years back) said the other day, “I have never known God to be so close as He was during those times. I could sense in a very real way His presence strengthening and holding us up.”

Now understand, I am not one who is a foreigner to mourning – my family has a long track record of burying each other at young ages – as my cousin Andrea said the other day, “The Hendricks know death.” In fact, not only have I dealt repeatedly with death in my personal life, but my job places me face to face with those dying and left behind on a nearly daily basis. I sometimes struggle with all the different responses I have to this journey. Sometimes doctor and statistician, sometimes preacher and Christian leader, sometimes little boy, and sometimes husband and father – it can be quite a tornado of emotions and thoughts.

So, I process all this and then on comes the song – “Hold My Heart” and I can barely keep from weeping for Tom and Aaron and Shirley’s husband and daughters and for those whose struggle we are joining on a daily basis:
Hold My Heart Lyrics
How long must I pray, must I pray to You?
How long must I wait, must I wait for You?
How long 'til I see Your face, see You shining through?
I'm on my knees, begging You to notice me.
I'm on my knees, Father will You turn to me?

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Would You come close and hold my heart

I've been so afraid, afraid to close my eyes
So much can slip away before I say goodbye.
But if there's no other way, I'm done asking why.
I'm on my knees, begging You to turn to me
I'm on my knees, Father will You run to me?

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Would You come close and hold my heart.

So many questions without answers, Your promises remain
I can't see but I'll take my chances to hear You call my name
To hear You call my name

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You're everything You say You are
Won't You come close and hold my heart.

Hold my heart, could you hold my heart?
Hold my heart.

Sometimes at night when my kids are afraid and they run into my room, or scream in fear from their rooms I search to find the right words to soothe their fears – to help them know that while the world is a scary and painful place, but that it will be ok. Most of the time I find the words lacking – instead realizing that what they want is to be held by me – instead of big speeches, I have taken to simply holding them close and saying, “Do you feel my arms? Do they feel strong? Will daddy protect you? I am here.” What I feel in those moments is my sweet child relax in my arms, allowing me to hold their heart.

I do not have an answer for Tom or for Shirley’s family, or for all those whose eyes I look into other than that, if you will cry out to Him, He will hear the sound of your breaking heart and hold you in His strong arms, comforting you and showing you the way. It will not be easy. Many times you will feel like you are simply one tear in the driving rain and one voice in a sea of pain and like you are just one life barely able to stand, but He will hear – in fact, you need not beg for Him to be there – He will join you in your journey if you simply groan to Him out of the pain in your heart – there will be a place for you to relax in His arms – they are strong…

For me, my course will continue to take me along life’s journey with those who suffer. But for them, I do not hold them, I am not strong enough, my arms are too weak – I point them, as I do you, to the One who has held my heart, who holds my heart, even on this clear skied and sunny and yet dark, dark Thursday morning. This journey of life embracing those in pain is so painful – so much moreso than the neglectful life of the usual middle class Americanism and it’s unending desire to consume – but it is so wonderful when even one scared and screaming child is snuggled up close to their father and I get to be there when they relax in His arms. You see, nothing is better than to be an emissary of the One, no matter the pain in the journey.

If you are struggling with the pain of life, cry out to Him – He will hold your heart, and please join us sometime at More than more – we meet every other Thursday, 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette. We will be there this Thursday, 7/8/10. Choosing His way will not make all the pain go away, but He will help you through it.

If you are coming face to face with people with are hurting lately, I hope you will join me in daring to care for them – point them to the One who cares for them – it will be hard – but you will look back someday and cherish the point when you decided to take His course.

What were we doing in there?

Last Thursday we spent a great evening together. As usual we spent part of our time discussing how amazing our God is in our everyday lives. This time we began our discussion with a video – a somewhat little seen video – of – my wedding. Of course, there were the prerequisite groomsmen and bridesmaids, the soothing music, organ and all, and then the view of the back of the church – the lovely lady dressed in white and her father choking back the tears. Then the close up on the groom (which in this case is me), as the bride comes to the altar – but if you look closely at the groom, you will see anxiety - he is one freaked out dude.
Now, I need to clarify something – I was not anxious about the woman I was marrying, she was fabulous and I knew it – I was anxious about the idea of being married, of being a husband, of all the things I was supposed to be and had no idea of how to do it. You see, I had not grown up with parents who communicated and lived the way with each other that I expected myself to be as a husband. I had no idea how to do the things I needed to do to be the person I wanted to be. I felt trapped. I felt like I was in a dark spot with only a flashlight to light the future of where I was to go. All the light I could see of hope in a future as a husband was about 3 inches around me. I had no idea how to get to where I needed to go and I was terrified. I spent my honeymoon feeling sick – I had no idea why – but I realized much later that the reason I was feeling so sick was the overwhelming anxiety I was feeling in my darkness. I needed to see that there was a way to get past my inability.
This is where God is so amazing. You see, I am not a hero, but if you asked my wife, you would find that while she fully recognizes my faults, she also would be the first to exclaim the fact that I am a fabulous husband. I am her rock. She depends on me through all the things that life brings our way. The distance I have traveled between the darkness I felt at the wedding to today is huge and I had no idea how it would be covered. The truth? God changes people. I was a terrible husband. I was awful and harmed my sweet wife so much that I'm ashamed to even talk about it. But, in the midst of all my anguish over harming her, I began to ask God to change who I was – you see, in the darkness, I realized that I could never be all that I wanted to be and I had no idea of how to get anywhere but where I was – so I reached out for God. Then and there He began to show me one step at a time the path toward how to become the man Melissa needed. Usually there was no giant vision of my future and the route to get there – simply a little more light in the direction of where I needed to go. After years of following a step at a time and asking God to change me, I find myself having come closer to where I wanted to be on that warm July day in 1993, than I ever realized I could be. Yet, I seriously claim no responsibility for this transformation that has occurred other than that I reached out to God.
This is amazing. Stop for a second and understand the fear I felt…understand the pain I caused and felt…soak up the devastation of not knowing where to go and yet knowing that where you are cannot possibly be right and yet not knowing where to even go next.
Do you every feel trapped? Do you feel like all you can see is the darkness of where you live now? Do you feel like you will never be able to make it out of the pattern of life you are in? Like you will never be able to break that habit? Like you will never be able to be the person you want to be? Like it is hopeless and you will never be able to get past the darkness of your life?

Listen to this news (some people have even called it good news). There is hope for you. You see, possibly better than all the noticing of sleep and noticing taste and all the other things we have noticed over the years is the noticing that there is hope. God is a God who cares about people and their lives and can change you. Even more than just changing you, He can help you actually be the person you were made to be – the one who is crying out in the darkness from inside you that there must be something More than this. This is the most amazing thing that there is about God. And this is what I see in all of the people who have been coming to More than more. You are being changed by him – I see it in you. So, when you notice the darkness and the prison of yourself – thank God for the fact that He is the changer of people and invite Him into the moment with you and when you notice the changes He has made in you and anyone else around you, thank Him for it and celebrate how amazing He is.

If this is interesting to you - if your heart is crying out for More, you are more than welcome to join us - we hang out every other Thursday at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, from 6:45-8:00PM. the next time we will be there will be next Thursday, the 8th of July. As always there is free childcare so you can not have to worry about your kids. We would love to have you join us!

From June 10th - Noticing

Hi! We had a fabulous time on the 10th and we hope you are able to join us this Thursday, 6/24, 6:45-8:00PM, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.

On the 10th, we spent some time noticing how amazing God is by talking a little about sleep. Now, I know there are some of you who are not the best sleepers, but nevertheless this is an amazing thing!

NOw, just think about it, without noticing it, each day, you spend your day working or doing what you do and then you come home, you have dinner and then you go to sleep - usually from 6-10 hours per night. This means that you spend more time in your bed, sleepnig, than anywhere else in your entire life!!

Each day you crash out - exhausted - many times unable to do anymore - and then you wake up - rested and ready to go again. You have thiswonderful period of rejuvenation built right into your world! God has made you with this - it is no accident!

Did you know that years ago there were some studies done in which they intentionally kept people awake for extendd periods of time - you know what happens? They all get psychotic - hallucinations and the whole shebang! You sleep helps your mind cope with all the things yo have to think about!

Did you know that the mecahnism for sleep to start is so complicated that it is not still completely understood (here's hope for you who have some struggles with insomnia) - wonderfully created!

Did you know that growth hormone is released during sleep - and children sleep much longer than adults (interesting how they are the ones who are growing!!) - see how magnificently the sleep cycle is made??

And, last but not least, sleep is prompted by 2 signals - one is a hormone called melatonin and the other is...a drop in temperature - isnt it amazing that we need to sleep at night, when we can't be as productive because of the lack of daylight - and when it just happens to get cooler?

It is truly amazing that God has made your sleep and mine to be so perfect - it is just impossible to believe that something as perfect as this happened by random chance - God made you this way!

So, the next time you head off to sleep, or wake up, talk to God about how thankful you are that He has made you so amazingly and perfectly for what you need! Invite Him into the moment with you and relish the time you get to share with Him. Notice...and you will begin to live for More than just the usual more of American life!

a 3rd Note

We ended the time together Thursday with a story:

Julie is a young woman who I see in my practice who asked that I share her story. She came to me as a new patient years ago when she was a newlywed and doing well. I enjoyed making sure that her sinuses were clear and she was doing routinely well.
Then one day, she came into my office, pale and broken and not herself. You see, her father, who had been so close to her, had just died suddenly. She wept and hurt and tried to get through it. But, she was now raising her baby and had lots to do, a job and a life and a husband and she really did not have time to grieve (or she chose instead to throw herself headlong into her life so that she did not have to think about her grief) so she tackled day after day.
After some struggles with burying her father, she seemed again to "hit stride" and be close to her usual happy life, with only some intermittent issues with anxiety. Then again one day, I saw her name on my schedule and when I walked into the room, I knew something was going on that was not good. She looked down at the ground, eyes red, tears flowing down her cheeks, her voice hushed. "Jacob has left me," was her only sad sentence. So, again she wept and cried and we shared the grief of the pain of her life. She seemed to somehow still function here and there for months after this. She began to go to try to involve God in her life some and yet her husband was really not interested in getting back together with her.
Then one day, she came into the office smiling and happy and much more her normal self again. She announced to me that she was just sure that she was supposed to be back with her husband again and that she was planning to go meet with him and announce her intentions to get back together, in spite of all that he had done to her and her little boy.
The next week she was back, the most beat down and sad that I have ever seen her - even wondering about the value of staying alive. "He didn't want me. He didn't want to get back together. He wants no part of me," were her words. Racked with pain, it seemed her entire existence was coming to an end.
We talked for a long time that day, and I began to remind her that she was a fabulous person, not because Jacob said so, or because she was married or because she was a mom or a daughter or because her dad said she was valuable, but because God made her as an amazing and intricate gift to the world. He made her just the way she is - she did not have anything to prove in order to "be someone" to God, or to me. She looked up, kind of not totally believing me. We prayed and she promised to begin trying to get in touch with God in new ways and to allow Him to be the One who gave her More to life.
She returned in a few days (I was checking on her because she had been having such a hard time the previous visit) and this time she still had a hurting look to her eyes, but she looked me in the eyes, and what I saw there was peace. She smiled when I came in...
She proceeded to inform me that she was already trying to involve God in her life more and she was beginning to realize that she had been searching for more in the relationships she had with her husband and her father. She felt that her entire self was tied up in these things and when she began to see that WHO she was God's child and that He loved her very much and not Jacob's wife or her father's daughter, she began to be more at peace with life. She still is not sure what direction her relationship will go - it is painful to her to see the destruction of so much of her life - but her changed perspective on life, pursuing God as her "More" instead of wife hood or daughter hood, has helped her so much already and her future is promising regardless of the path that her journey will take.
Now, by no means am I saying that being a good wife or daughter is a bad thing - it is a fabulous thing - but relationships with people, whether it be in Julie's way, or feeling as if you must always make everyone happy and always serve everyone, or feeling as if your life is over when your kids are out of the house and grown, must not become who you are. If they do, at some point in your life, you will have to face the fact that these things will never completely make you full and happy. If you do these things and make God the More in your life, you will find that these relationships have better perspective and when the troubles come, which they always do, life will continue to have meaning and purpose and there will be joy behind the struggles that you are having.
At More than more, we are continuing to try to find ways to experience life more fully, to get past the usual "more" that we find ourselves pursuing in everyday American life and that so seems to crowd out our joy and meaning.

We would love to have you join us 6/10 at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, IN - here is a google map link

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=McAllister+Recreation+Center,+Lafayette,+IN&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=42.85226,91.494141&ie=UTF8&hq=McAllister+Recreation+Center,&hnear=Lafayette,+IN&ll=40.442505,-86.87439&spn=0.080738,0.178699&z=13&iwloc=A

6:45-8:00 PM - as always there will be free childcare for your kids!

Hope to see you there!

A 2nd Note

I think my posts are too long - so I am trying to split them into more readable sections - let me know what you think...

Thursday after noticing handshakes, we noticed people. We looked around at each other and saw each other as people, full of joy and peace, full of pain and doubt and fear and hurt. We dared to step out of the life of America where we simply try to get to the next task and get it completed and into the real life of wonder where amazing people surround us everyday - each of us wonderful!!!

I told about a young man who entered my office just prior to our time together - he had just returned from Haiti. What he had seen there had devastated his heart. The heartbreak of the little children, hungry and hurting, will never allow him to return to normal again. He was so crushed that he struggled to even spend the money to come to my office across town and the $1 of gas that he was spending! That was money, he reasoned, that could have fed 2 or 3 of those kids, as he wept before me. There he sat, crushed, broken, by the pain of those kids and that country and his inability to feed them all, save them all, help them all...

You see, he noticed. He saw those kids as beautiful little creations, each with their own handshake. He noticed their brokenness and pain...and it crushed him.

The thing is, we are surrounded by a society of hungry children. Yes, there are those who are hungry and hurting right there in your town (and we should be helping them). But, even more than that, we are a society that has lost its meaning and joy - we strive for things that mostly have no meaning - we spend almost of our time trying to earn enough to pay off our credit card bills and to buy the next thing we want. We spend most of our hours and days trying to build up enough to have joy in a few moments - rather than having joy in the everyday. We are bankrupt and broken and lost and full of pain - this land is filled with people who need to hear about the life that opens before us when we dare to notice. They need someone to SEE them - to be crushed for their pain and love them - and then to know that there is HOPE. When we are noticers, we have the chance to give HOPE. We want to notice!

The problem is that noticing means that we must LOOK and then we must be willing to give up our agenda, our plan, our timing, what ever we had in mind for that moment, in order to notice them and care about them. We do this everytime we get together at More than more. We NOTICE.

Just a Note

Hey you all!

We had a great time Thursday night. It was a time to get our minds and hearts onto something "More" than what we have/had been living for. We find ourselves many times living out dreams to have more fun, more money, more toys, more sex, more power, more degrees and status, more friends, more escape and we find that when we get these things we find only emptyness - yes, fun for a little and then the need to go after something else to make us "happy" - as we continue this journey after something "More" we find more peace in the midst of where we are, more joy in the everyday - it is good.

Thursday we noticed handshakes - we noticed the character of the hand we were shaking, the callouses, the softness, the strength of the grip, the tremor, maybe even sensed the tendons of the hand, and if we dared, we might even look into the eyes of the person whose hand we were shaking - we find an unbelieveably complicated thing in a handshake - something we do many times per day.

You see, when you shake a hand and notice you, realize that in the instant of the handshake you know many things about the person whose hand you are shaking - you can tell the kind of work or hobby that they have (my surgeon's hands better be soft!) - you can often sense their fear (shaking or sweaty) or their confidence (real or exaggerated) and desire to dominate you (if they squeeze the heck out of our hand)and you make a connection with that person - whether you want to or not!

All this processing occurs instantly - you do not have to ponder on it for hours to figure it out - your hand gives the information to your brain and instantly you know all these things as your brain instantly remembers a million handshakes before this one and correlates this one to all the others! Amazing!

But, here's something funky, there are people who would have you believe that this is all accidental - that something this amazing came about by accident! This is ludicrous - this has the mark of all kinds of meaning to it - we cannot help but connect with each other...all the time!

You see, God made you this way! So, the next time you shake someone's hand - don't just cling to the hand and think about it - the person whose hand you are shaking will thing you are a handshake stalker or something - but notice how amazing it is! Tell God how thankful you are that He has made you so wonderful and invite Him to join you in your day. You see, I choose to not go through my life as a shadow of who I am, simply trying to produce and consume. I choose to notice the wonder and amazingness all around me - this frees my mind and heart to something "More" - God has given all this and when I invite Him into the moment and thank Him for the amazingness, my life gains a new fullness and meaning than I never knew before!

Notice

Hi! I just realized that my last post actually was published as a past post because I started it before the followup one. So...look past the "uterus" entry to the next one for the post leading up to this week's More than more time - this Thursday, 5/27 - 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.

Hope to see you all there!

From the heart...and the Uterus?

Well, we sure are a prolific group - seems we have a way of having lots of children among us - sure does keep things lively! This was the topic of discussion this last time we got together - we had the extreme pleasure of having Autumn Renee with us - she is the daughter of Jenna and ws only a couple days old last Thursday! She is beautiful and perfect and amazing and all the adjectives in the world seem to not do her any level of justice!

Well, we talked about how her life inside her mom had some pretty major rough patches, and things seemed dark and scary for a while - just like life so often does. But, there she was, amazing and delicate and such a beautiful little gift to her mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and More than more - and it becomes very clear that when God gets involved in the lives of people there is hope. So...as many people in our group and probably many of you who are reading this need to hear as you struggle wit the circumstances of life - the heartbreak and pain and dark days that we all face - there is hope. This is what we are all about at More than more - we want to notice the Autumn Renees of the world and begin to invite God into the moments of our lives - in this we find newness in life and meaning and purpose!

If you are living in the everyday American dream of get more, become more, be more, buy more, have more and you are finding it empty and shallow and lifeless and you long for something "More" or if you are just curious about such a strange group of people, then we would love for you to join us next Thursday, May 13th, 6:45-8:00PM, at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.

Hope to see you there!

Fish Net and Hat Guy

So, the other day we had the pleasure of being in San Diego and we were eating some breakfast at a little Cafe, downtown. We were sitting outside and watching the big city traffic flow here and there and the inner city people walk by. We were particularly enjoying all their frantic pace and our lack of any plan whatsoever - being people who usually are frantically running to and fro the break was wonderful.

Well, there we sat, when all of a sudden my wife (sitting across from me changed her facial experession to this thoughtful, almost questioning, look. My first thought was that I had something on my face - this happens a lot - but then I realized that not only was she not looking at me, but she her head was moving - following something or someone along. There was this faint hope that it was not some really good-looking blond haired, abercrombie-looking 20 year old surfer guy that I would then need to whoop-up a little, just to fight for my woman...but wait, I am getting off track a little - sorry! Her eyes seemed to dart back and forth between whatever was seemingly moving toward us and the street/the cars passing by.

So, I wondered what it was was that had so captured Melissa's attention, but I realized that I couldn't just turn around and gawk, but instead had to wait until whatever it was came into view. And within a few seconds to my left walked past us a yound lady, maybe 20-25 years old with blond hair, a short but nice skirt, fish net stockings and boots. She was actually tastefully dressed Melissa said, but she was not shy nor amish.

Now, obviously, we travel a fair amount and seeing someone dressed like this is not unusual, but the interesting thing was actually not her at all (not not to me either). It was the traffic. Yes, it seemed that most of the drivers in the cars on that street (it was one way coming toward me and in the opposite direction of the young lady)were men; young and old, driving nice cars and beaters and delivery vans. And they seemed to all think she was the best thing to look at on the street! It was interesting to see how traffic slowed down and men's heads turned to observe her. She caused quite a stir! Melissa was really mad at a couple of the guys who she said looked like they were probably married and I got a "You better not look at girls that way when I'm not around" look my way, clear as day! Well, she went her way and there was no traffic accident at her passing by, thankfully, and we went about our day, enjoying having no agenda.

Later in the evening Melissa was kind enough to go with me to Petco park, to see the Padres play the Giants. Before you go and applaud her generosity too much, you should know that the biggest reason that she wanted to go was to enjoy the baseball nachos which are legendary in her mind. I joke, she was excited to be there - she says baseball was made to be seen in person and is too boring to watch in TV - and basically I agree with her. So, we found our parking place and filed into the park with the rest of the crowd and quickly found our seats.

We settled in and found that there were not very many people in our section - not a big deal to us - but kinda wondering if they could smell the midwest on us or something. We enjoyed the game, watching the crowd and enjoying the wonderful, although much chillier than we expected, evening.

Over the course of the game, we noticed a guy, wearing an unusual fishing hat, between us and home plate (which was of course where a great deal of our attention lay). He was small, maybe 5'5" or so and small framed as well, but this in no way dampened his enthusiasm! With each mini-song of the giant baseball park organ he was up and chanting, pumping his fist, doing the wave by himself (and trying to get all those around him involved), and generally being a loyal and true and excited fan. So, as is often the case, we watched both the game and "Hat Guy" and how each would progress through the evening.

In the end the Padres won on a 10th inning homerun by David Eckstein. It was really cool to see a "walk-off" home run to end a game and fireworks and all! But, the progress of "Hat-guy" was equally impressive. Over the course of the game he developed friendships and infected his entire section with his passion. By then end, he had multiple people chatting with him, chanting and cheering with him and I may have even seen them do a mini-wave! They were laughing and having a great time being Padre fans and people - it was really cool...and I am pretty sure they were not drunk - at least not all the way - so their behavior was legit.

So, I wonder if you are now asking, "What is the point of "Fish-Net Girl" and "Hat-Guy"? Well, I would love to tell you.

They both share something really important. They have an attraction about them. There is somethign about them that inspires, the brings out passion (admittedly not necessarily the best type of passion, but nevertheless...)

You see, what I see in American society today is almost all a grit it out, make a living, survive the credit cards, pay the mortgage, get to all the activities, get a little sleep and repeat the next day kind of life. Most people feel like the really important parts of their lives - the fabulous (or Fish-net/Hat Guy) moments of life are actually only a tiny portion of how we spend our time. One time a guy I really respect told me that in American we spend most of our time working so that we can enjoy and invest the rest of our time in what we really value.

This is not how I want my life to be! No offense if your mission is to spend your life like this, but this is not for me. I want to have a life that is filled with fish net and hat guy enthusiasm, with passion, with fire. I want to exemplify meaning and purpose, even if the tasks I am doing in a given day may seem routine (like Padres baseball or walking down the street). I want people to see the way I live and think, I want to cheer like that crazy guy in the hat!

So, how do we begin to get "more" out of life? How do we move past the everyday, grind-it-out mentality of America? Well, we need a huge change in the way we view life - kinda like in Dead Poets Society when the teacher encourages all the students to stand ont he desk and look at the classroom in a different way.

We, at More than more are living more and more like this every day. We are finding ways to see life differently. It is not always fluffy or easy, being different and seeing things differently - but it opens up life and gives such freedom...

We would love to begin sharing this with you!

We will be getting together again this coming Thursday 5/27, 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Recreation Center in Lafayette - just off 20th ahd Schuyler Ave - free child care, as always. We hope to se you there!

Simply Put - We Love Movies

So, I have been spending a lot of my free time of late watching old movies that I have never seen (like "The Outlaw Josie Wales" which I just finished) while I exercise. My thinking is that sometimes I get a little weird from my exposure to sick people all the time and then in my role as leader and teacher and all and so the movies help me keep a little better touch with the reality of American life - masy sound silly, but try living in my very strange (but wonderful) world for a day and I think you will better understand. Anyway, all this movie watching prompted the "noticing" for last week's More than more time we shared.

We talked about our favorite movie and each of the folks talked a little or a lot about their favorite scene. It was really hard for some and one movie seemed to be too much of a task for many of us, but we tried and we had a great time talking about anything from "The Blind Side" to "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" to "Armageddon" and "Gone with the Wind" and "On Golden Pond" We laughed and (yes that's right) some even cried as we talked about the significance these movies have had in our lives. It was fun and interesting to see what everybody likes.

We then spent some time noticing the amazingness of God as we considered how remarkably movies impact us. In fact, all a movie is typically is a made up story, with some overpaid men and women acting it out and being told what to do and say by some dude or lady with an ego the size of Texas and a bunch of fake backdrops and props to make it sell, and nowadays with a bunch of computer generated additions at the end. This is a big sham, from the beginning to the end. Granted some of these are "based on a true story" but how loosely I sometimes wonder!

So, here's the skinny - these fakey, built up, silly, made up scams move us to tears - even in a group of people sitting around in a community center like More than more. Don't get me wrong, I am so glad the people who come to More than more find peace and acceptance there to such a huge degree that they feel they can just totally be themselves, but consider how much movies affect us!

Literally, "Dead Poet's Society" has changed the way I live my life. It has affected me so much. But how is this, that this fakey creation has such an impact?

The truth? We see, in these movies, glimpses of ourselves. We find pieces of our insecurities lived out in the lives of the people in the movies - we see them win the battles we wish we could - we see them make it seem like our journey is not so impossible after all - they validate us, they challenge us, sometimes they condemn us. All out of this fakeness, they do all this.

So, here is the "notice" part. The reason that we are made this way - so able to connect, to be impacted, to associate and intertwine our experiences with those in the movies, is that God has made us this way. No, I am sure He did not make us this way specifically so that the movie makers could make more money. Instead, he made us so bound to relationships and memories and our emotions are so tied up with our experiences and with those around us that we automatically connect and experience intense passion with those in the movie. Plus, to many of us, because there is also some intermixed sense of the fakeness too, connecting with the people in the movie is a lot safer than connecting with the people in our real world, as it only involves 90 minutes or so and there is little potential for serious harm to come to us, unlike the people in the real world where serious hurt is the norm, it seems. It is a beautiful thing that we are made so wonderfully as to be able to connect to movies, books, stories, music so deeply - that it can impact us so powerfully. And, we have God to thank for this! He made us this way. I am sure that if I watch "Dead Poet's" with my dog, she will have no connection at all with the characters in the movie (I doubt she would feel any connection with Marley in "Marley & Me" either for those of you ready to point out that there are no dogs in "Dead Poet's"). So, the next time that you watch a movie, or a TV show, or a Hallmark Commercial, and you find youself involved, inspired, moved, hurt, afraid, etc - consider first that the whole thing is a fake and then consider that it still is having a huge affect on you. There, in that moment, pause the DVR, or mute the sound, and talk to God. Thank Him that He made you so wonderfully and amazingly that you have this built in people connector in you because without it, life would be lame. Ask Him to join you in the moments that you spend watching movies and TV and in your life and enjoy how He changes the way you think!

This is a little piece of what we talked about last Thursday at More than more. If you are looking for more out of life and are tired of the same old thing - we would love to have you join us on our journey toward meaning and purpose and joy in life. We will be hanging out again 4/29 at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler, Lafayette, 6:45-8:00PM - we would love to have you join us!

Spring Community Outreach 2010

Hello!
I want to tell you about Good Friday - 4/2. More than twenty adults from More than more, and many more kids, took time away from work and home to give some of the love that we have been experiencing in our lives at More than more on 4/2 at Howarth Center, here in Lafayette.

We saw 25 patients in the clinic and were able to give lots of free medicines and we gave out more than 400 pairs of shoes to those who had no good shoes. Plus we fed 3 meals to our friends who don't happen to currently have homes at Lafayette Transitional Housing. It was an amazing day! We talk a lot at More than more about noticing. We try to notice the wonder and amazingness of God in the life around us and celebrate that, rather than having our lives trapped in the do more, get more, buy more, achieve more, become more, more sex, more escape, more entertainment of our society. We realize that the more of American life is empty and even many times hurtful and we choose a different way - to connect with the One who made all this and so longs to be a part of our world. We also focus our minds and hearts on noticing each other and the people around us.

The amazing thing about all this ideal belief stuff is that it is really changing the people that we are. As we involve God in the moments of our lives and dare to notice the life around us, our lives become more full and meaningful and joy filled. So, out of all that came our desire to share this amazing life with other people...and an intense frustration with the "business as usual" that we find around us day after day in the world around us. We are frustrated by the way that the "system" puts people down, uses people, steals away their dignity and meaning and makes them feel like the things that are really important to all of us are not really important. In short, we are angry at the injustice and we see all these people around us, every day, who we want to see that they are important and that they matter and that there is hope for them - this motivates us to do something about all that injustice - and that is why we take time out to spend giving away shoes and medical care! You see, we really do believe that people matter and each of the people that we were able to share shoes or medical care with heard from us the same message - "no matter what society may say, no matter where your life is, you matter to us!"
It was an amazing thing to watch the responses of the people we told that. In fact, the group was asked beforehand to "notice" all day and write down their notes in a note book. We saw people who were part of the "broken" system we are all a part of who took advantage of us - some who took maybe even a dozen of pairs of shoes - for what purpose we do not know - other who tried to manipulate the system to suit their selfish needs the best they could. But some who brought back shoes that they could not use and some who refused to take any more than they absolutely needed - like the parents who would only take shoes for their children. Then there was the little girl who just wanted to hug the lady who gave her the shoes and the family who only had winter boots to wear for their kids in the heat of the near 80 degree temps and whose children literally danced in their wonderful new shoes - much to our delight! There were the people, when told that they really mattered, just because, that responded that they had never been told that before in their lives (what a tragedy!)

It was also amazing to watch the people of More than more - these are people who have struggled with all that life can dish out, many all of the same kinds of pain and loss and heartbreak that the people they were serving were going through - and there they were, loving each other - part of a community of people who care for each other not because of what the others provide to them, or what skills they have or how socially able they are or how they dress or where they live or even how they act, but just because they noticed that all the people are wonderfully made by God. And, even past that, that these same people were caring for every single person who came for help - without any hesitation - opening their hearts to be hurt by those who would take advantage and to be loved by those who were grateful, but putting it out there nevertheless. And you should have seen them shine - their faces shined (and not just with sweat - although it was hot) - they shined with love - and joy - it was amazing!

You see, we are a group of people who are tired of the way things work- we believe in something more. Yet, we are not content to sit around and talk about it - we are determined to make a difference in the world - we choose to experience life differently than other people and it is changing our lives in the process.

If you are tired of living "business as usual" in this country and would like to begin living life with more meaning and purpose and joy and if you long to be cared for and loved for who you are instead of what you offer, you should join us - we will be getting together this thursday night - 4/15/10 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, in Lafayette. there will be free child care as always and you can bet on a good time! We hope to have a chance to share the time with you!

Community Outreach 2010 eve

Hi everyone! Well tomorrow is the "big day!" Months of planning and preparation will all come to a giant culmination tomorrow at Community Outreach 2010 - Spring edition.
We have had 2 great nights, these last 2. Wednesday night many of those who are giving their day tomorrow to those in our community who need shoes or medical care gathered together to organize oabout 400 pairs of shoes which we have already purchased and to share dinner together. It was really a great time - it was fun enough to make you want to join in for July and October if you missed it!
Then tonight we gathered together for More than more. It was a fabulous time! We spent some time notcing outside - as we relied on each other's senses to see the world around us as it comes to life in Spring. We spent some time just noticing the world around us on the front lawn of McAllister Center and then we shared those tings and spent a little time thanking the God who made these things so wonderfully - like baby bunnies playing, birds singing, the feel of the cool grass between our toes and the wind on our faces, the sound of children laughing, the beauty of the late daylight (even if it was helped along by the government making us change our clocks)and even the sprayed on grass seed, getting ready to sprout - we were taken with the many colors and the life all around us! It was cool. We were challenged to notice these things in our day to day life - these things are not only present during this hour and 1/2 we call More than more every other Thursday, but they are there all the time. We need to be willing to once in a while, let go our of need to do so much and notice, and in that moment invite God to join us and thank Him for the amazing world He has given us.

We then spent a little time talking about the 7th anniversary of our disaster and victory in the Hendrick house. 4/1/03, was a day that forever changed our lives. Sophia was 8wks inside Melissa, who was at Toys R Us with 3 yr old Nate. She had a severe dizzy spell and got disoriented, but was able to get me on the phone. I went straight there and found here really unable to walk because of the dizziness and then on the way to the hospital really not making much sense. We went to St E ER and as they sedated her with some valium, I watched my sweet 29 year old wife's face droop on the right side. Well, 2 MRI's later came the news from my colleague, Dr Hoyer, "She's had a stroke." The words seemed to hang in the air like a bomb waiting to explode. Well, long story short, 6months of twice a day painful shots, and now a lifetime of Aspirin daily and my sweet wife is perfect - you would never know she had a stoke - except for the fact that out of that terrible experience, God remade and reshaped her - into an even more wonderful and beautiful woman than she was before!

Here's the take home message - it is easy to be inspired by the hope of Spring right now - buds on the trees, new grass, bulbs bursting from the earth, life is restarting all over! But, life is not Spring-like. Life is filled with pain - strokes and betrayals and Lupus and cancer and car wrecks and messed up backs, addictions and habits and hurts and pains and losses - it is often times more like fall or winter than spring! Not to rain on your nice spring day, but it is true - life is hard. The things is, this God we invite into the middle of our lives in this More than more group takes the pain and the loss and the hurt and makes spring - he is the great Creator - making all things new - just like He took Melissa and remade her out of her pain and heart break and loss and pain - He can take and remake you, make spring out of your winter. No, it does not erase the pain - Melissa had 6months of shots and a lifetime of remembering and our girls will have to fear whether that could happen to them when the time comes. But the newness and joy and wonder and peace and meaning and even peace that He brings out of the ashes of burned down dreams never ceases to amaze me. As I look around the group of people at More than more, I see a group of people who are being recreated, remade in beautiful new forms, by the same God who gives us this beautiful spring!

Tomorrow we will be sharing this newness and wonder and love with hundreds of our neighbors who cannot afford good shoes for their families or good health care or medicines. It does not seem like a burden or work to us - but rather an overflow of thankfulness to the God who has brought spring to our lives.

If you have experienced fall and winter, pain and loss and hurt, if you have been betrayed and kicked, if you have searched for joy and meaning and peace and have found none, and you find this More than more idea interesting, or inviting, we would love for you to join us April 15, 6:45-8:00PM, 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, McAllister Recreation Center.