Whar's the big deal about a birthday?

Last More than more we had a fantastic time on an outreach.  What is an outreach?  I'm glad you asked.  At More than more, we believe that life is about More than just the everyday stuff it seems like it is about.  There is much More.  We enjoy learning about this and looking for new ways to change our perspectives on this life every other Thursday night at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, from 6:45-8:00.  In fact we will be there this Thursday night, May 3rd.  As always. there will be cool activities for all age kids.  
But, our usual Thursdays are only a small part of our lives.  We want this idea, this life, to be the way we live all the time, in our homes, in our workplaces, in our schools - we want to be different, wonderfully, joyfully different!
Part of what makes us different is that we just are not content to sit and enjoy our perspective and joy, we are determined to share it with as many people as possible - we are thrilled to be living life better, but we are sad at the fact that there are so many people in the world right around us who do not realize the wonder of life!!

All that to say, our outreach projects are designed to show other people the kind of perspective we are trying to live with every day and that we learn about every other Thursday night. 

So, back to the title of this post - what's the big deal?

Well, did you realize that on the day of your birth, you were a gift to the world?  The God who made you could have chosen any combination of your parents' genetic material and out of all the possibilities, He chose you!!!  You are a gift, to us, to your world!

So many times in our culture we attribute value to people by their financial statement, by the health, by their popularity, by their location, by their race, etc.  Once a person told me they truly believed that a person's actual value only existed if they made certain amounts of money and was "productive."  But that person was wrong (and they made me kinda sick i have to tell you).  You see, all of us have a birthday - all of us are a treasure to the One who created us, amazingly and intricately made, each part of us a masterpiece!  And so many times we miss it - our value comes in our birth - that is a lot to celebrate!

So, at More than more, we love birthdays - not just because we love an excuse to party (even though we do!) - but because we love to celebrate God's creativity and birthdays become an outreach when they become a way for us to share the joy in our lives with someone else and remind them of their value, to us, and to God, by celebrating their birthday!  

This last Thursday we celebrated the birthday of one of our friends, her name is Carla.  We all went over, had a fantastic lavender frosted spice cake (that's her favorite kind!) and the kids painted bird houses - she loves birds.  We gave her gifts, she blew out candles and a good time was had by all!!  

But the best by far was the peaceful joyful face Carla had as the realization sunk deeply into her heart that she mattered, that she was wonderful, that the real gift on her birthday was her, from God to us!  I hope she never forgets, and i hope you don't either.

If this kind of crazy fun sounds like it might be worth a try, please join us Thursday - we do have tons of fun!
Hope to see you there!

What's Coming Up!

Hi everyone!  We have been having a fantastic time at More than more.  Last Thursday night Dottie talked about some of the amazing experiences in her life - it was a great time to hear how amazing life and even death can be, in a different perspective than many of us have heard before.

Next Thursday night we are going to having a birthday party.  One of my friends, an older woman named Carla was not going to have any celebration for her birthday and so on the 19th, instead of our usual More than more time, we are going to go to her house and have a huge party!!!  The kids need to wear clothes that can get paint on them or bring something to cover up their clothes!!  We will be meeting at McAllister (just off 20th and Schuyler Ave) at the usual time (6:45PM) and then driving to Carla's place, leavnig ABOUT 6:55PM!! 

You see, we believe that it is an amazing thing that God gave the world the gift of Carla on her birthday and we want to be able to celebrate God's creativity expressed in her!!!

We hope you will be able to make it - it will be awesome!

Just a Tuesday

               It's Tuesday morning.  6AM.  As i look out at the landscape of my day, i see a crazy schedule.  If i just give it a glance, i see lots of people who will have all kinds of problems and schedule that is fast paced to say the least...i see 3 kids and a wife who have all kinds of things to do and accomplish and schedules to follow and keep...i see a multiple different groups that we lead and have things coming up and if i am not careful, the task list begins to spiral in my mind - getting bigger and bigger (or as Doctor Seuss would say, biggerer and biggerer), threatening to drown out all semblance of anything else and make me a slave to its domination.  I see all these things have their place in my life and there is a purpose in each of them.  I have chosen to place them in the day - but together they form this tornado that threatens to take me far away from what together in my life they were supposed to be, to wreak havoc on the very purpose of life!  You see, i feel this need to do it all well.  i want to succeed and thrive and work hard and not fail - and this drives me to do too many things sometimes...

               So, here i sit, talking to God in the beginning of my day, asking Him to bring His perspective to the moments of this day.  Asking Him to help me to not be dominated by my need to always do everything right and good and betterer.  Asking Him to help me to remember that it is not the schedule or the success that is the key to this being a wonderful day, but the people who are in the middle of it all.  In fact, if this is to be a wonderful day, i need to be ready to shirk the drive of the schedule and instead notice the broken hearts and lives around me.  I need to be willing to realize that all my pursuit of doing everything just right over the years, while successful in terms of what our culture would say, has never brought me joy.  The only thing that has brought me joy has been flying in the face of all the things in this crazy culture of ours that push me to always get more stuff, buy more stuff, achieve higher goals, make everyone happy, rise in the corporate ladder, have more positions, have more tasks and do them the best, and instead choosing to grasp these things as lightly as possible, choosing  to notice all the in between people and things that reorient my life to what life is really about.  As someone said, "It is the journey of life that makes it beautiful, not the destination" - which i would change slightly to "It is the joys of the journey of life that take us to a different, more wonderful destination."  The more i notice the amazingness of the world around me and the wonder of the people (and their brokenness) around me, the more life opens up and becomes wonderful and joyful and full of purpose and meaning and even awe.  The more i recognize the beauty of the God who made it all and who loves us so much and invite Him into the moments of my day, asking Him to be in the moments and help me to not to lose His perspective.  The more i realize that i will never be able to make myself happy and neither will my wife or kids or family or friends, only God can take all the things that already exist in my world and help me see them in a new way that will bring deep joy to my life.  The more i do all these things, the landscape of my day looks amazing, full of promise.  No longer do i feel a slave to my compulsions.  I am free.  There is More than more - and that is a beautiful thing!

               If you are sick and tired of the usual mores of our world, feel trapped by your schedule and just have lost your joy.  You might consider joining us Thursday night, the 5th of April, at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.  We spend our time talking about and working at living this way and sharing life together.  It is a great time and as always there is a group for kids and teens/tweens.  We hope you will be able to join us!!!