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!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
When the thumb misses the mouth
The other day I was visiting with a young mother and her little girl. 7 month old Juli was playing and laughing and, as usual, charming the socks off me. We were just chatting away, and then I noticed little Juli trying to get her thumb into her mouth. It was so cute, as this little munchkin repeatedly shoved her thumb to her face - it didn't hurt or anything - she would take it back, as if gauging the distance and then she would shove into her cheek, then into the other cheek and this happened 4 or 5 times in a row. It was so funny, her mom and I just laughed and laughed as her momma finally guided the poor misfiring thumb into her sweet little mouth.
So, here's the point. There are so many times in life I am going along thinking that I have figured out what will make me happy, content and satisfied - I pull back my thumb and jab it toward my mouth, sure that this time it will be the right fit and I will be happy. Then, to my frustration I find that I am not happy and satisfied after all - the pushing for money did not do it and the pushing for more hobbies did not do it and the drive for success and achievement, that didn't do it either and neither did escaping into the sports or the tv or the making everybosy happy around me - each time the thumb seems to have missed my mouth - when all the while, my mouth was right there, waiting for me to hit the mark and find some more peace and satisfaction than I ever had before.
Life in America, it seems, is mostly a pursuit of more - trying to find the right "more" thumb hole to make us finally content - when many times it is actually that we are looking in wrong place for our thumb. At More than more, we are all about helping people begin to look past the "business as usual" American lifestyle to finding something "More" out of life. We can't make you content, but, like Juli's mom, we would like to show you where you may be able to find more peace and more joy and more wonder in life - we'd like to point your thumb toward the mouth it has been searching for - we certainly are finding that the "More" we are finding is more fulfilling, more wonderful, more amazing, more fun than we ever dreamed...
If you are spending your life going after things that just seem like they are not nearly as wonderful as you thought they'd be, if you seem to run after things in life, only to find them not as satisfying as you expected, if your life has an emptyness to it that you just can't seem to fill or shake off, or if you are just curious, we would love to have you join us next Thursday, 4/1/10 at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, 6:45-8:00PM.
So, here's the point. There are so many times in life I am going along thinking that I have figured out what will make me happy, content and satisfied - I pull back my thumb and jab it toward my mouth, sure that this time it will be the right fit and I will be happy. Then, to my frustration I find that I am not happy and satisfied after all - the pushing for money did not do it and the pushing for more hobbies did not do it and the drive for success and achievement, that didn't do it either and neither did escaping into the sports or the tv or the making everybosy happy around me - each time the thumb seems to have missed my mouth - when all the while, my mouth was right there, waiting for me to hit the mark and find some more peace and satisfaction than I ever had before.
Life in America, it seems, is mostly a pursuit of more - trying to find the right "more" thumb hole to make us finally content - when many times it is actually that we are looking in wrong place for our thumb. At More than more, we are all about helping people begin to look past the "business as usual" American lifestyle to finding something "More" out of life. We can't make you content, but, like Juli's mom, we would like to show you where you may be able to find more peace and more joy and more wonder in life - we'd like to point your thumb toward the mouth it has been searching for - we certainly are finding that the "More" we are finding is more fulfilling, more wonderful, more amazing, more fun than we ever dreamed...
If you are spending your life going after things that just seem like they are not nearly as wonderful as you thought they'd be, if you seem to run after things in life, only to find them not as satisfying as you expected, if your life has an emptyness to it that you just can't seem to fill or shake off, or if you are just curious, we would love to have you join us next Thursday, 4/1/10 at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, 6:45-8:00PM.
Monday, March 22, 2010
I laughed til I nearly fell off my chair
This last Thursday, we had a fabulous time. It was not exactly "usual" even for us, but it was a blast. We laughed over the craziest and sillest things, but mostly we enjoyed being with a group of people who actually care about us with no agenda and enjoyed the peace and comfort of that kind of atmosphere.
We spent time noticing how things have been going in our preparations for Community Outreach 2010, which will be 4/2 at Howarth Center - 18th and Union St's Lafayette. Of special interest this time was how Melissa, who almost never goes to Kmart, stopped in for a quick peak at their shoes and found that they had marked down hundreds of fabulous shoes at 1/2 of the usual clearance price - she got hundreds of shoes to put on the feet of people in our town that don't have good new shoes to wear! Plus, the sales people everywhere we go are falling over themselves to help us even if all they can do is ring the shoes up (and no they are not on comission) so that they can be a part of something so cool! One of them even wants to start coming and being a part of a group of people that can love people like that! What's amazing is that all those shoes at Kmart were just marked to that low price that morning - they would have never lasted through the weekend and Melissa & Heather and Jordan just happened to stop in at that time - just when the time was perfect - truth is God works things out just the right way!
We spent so much time celebrating and laughing and enjoying noticing how God is working everything out that we didn't have much time to do anything else - but we didn't really miss it!
Hope to see you coming up soon at our Shoe Organization Party at Howarth Center garages, 6PM next Wed, or at More than more, 6:45-8:00PM, next Thursday, 4/1 at McAllister Recreation Center - 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette!
We spent time noticing how things have been going in our preparations for Community Outreach 2010, which will be 4/2 at Howarth Center - 18th and Union St's Lafayette. Of special interest this time was how Melissa, who almost never goes to Kmart, stopped in for a quick peak at their shoes and found that they had marked down hundreds of fabulous shoes at 1/2 of the usual clearance price - she got hundreds of shoes to put on the feet of people in our town that don't have good new shoes to wear! Plus, the sales people everywhere we go are falling over themselves to help us even if all they can do is ring the shoes up (and no they are not on comission) so that they can be a part of something so cool! One of them even wants to start coming and being a part of a group of people that can love people like that! What's amazing is that all those shoes at Kmart were just marked to that low price that morning - they would have never lasted through the weekend and Melissa & Heather and Jordan just happened to stop in at that time - just when the time was perfect - truth is God works things out just the right way!
We spent so much time celebrating and laughing and enjoying noticing how God is working everything out that we didn't have much time to do anything else - but we didn't really miss it!
Hope to see you coming up soon at our Shoe Organization Party at Howarth Center garages, 6PM next Wed, or at More than more, 6:45-8:00PM, next Thursday, 4/1 at McAllister Recreation Center - 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Last time & next time
Hey all! We had a fabulous time last Thursday night, the 4th, at McAllister Center. We spent our time talking about sacrifice. Beginning with noticing how humans naturally are made to sacrifice for others that they love, we noticed that we are amazingly well made and actually made to be caring about other people - even though sometimes we don't do this as well as we'd like to. It is an amzing thing to consider that all except the most evil people in the world sacrifice something naturally for other people sometimes.
We then spent some time noticing each other and the amazing people that are More than more, but also the pain in our lives and the hurts we carry and we talked to God about those things - it is amazing to see the pure acceptance that happens in this group, every other Thursday night, month after month, no matter who walks into the group - they care about them, without agenda!
Then we considered the amazing life of searching for More in God and how sometimes it is hard and even painful to give up of yourself for the love of people and to do the best things with your life, but it is so much better than living in selfishness and the lameness of the usual, get more, achieve more, attain more, buy more of American society.
It was a good time to hang out and enjoy each other and the chance we have to make a difference in the world - we will be extending this to our community on 4/2 at Howarth Center, 18 th and Union St's in Lafayette, when we give out shoes and medical care to those in our community who need them! We would love to have you join us in the group - we will be hanging out again next Thursday, the 18th, 6:45-8:00PM at 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, McAllister Center - hope to see you there!
We then spent some time noticing each other and the amazing people that are More than more, but also the pain in our lives and the hurts we carry and we talked to God about those things - it is amazing to see the pure acceptance that happens in this group, every other Thursday night, month after month, no matter who walks into the group - they care about them, without agenda!
Then we considered the amazing life of searching for More in God and how sometimes it is hard and even painful to give up of yourself for the love of people and to do the best things with your life, but it is so much better than living in selfishness and the lameness of the usual, get more, achieve more, attain more, buy more of American society.
It was a good time to hang out and enjoy each other and the chance we have to make a difference in the world - we will be extending this to our community on 4/2 at Howarth Center, 18 th and Union St's in Lafayette, when we give out shoes and medical care to those in our community who need them! We would love to have you join us in the group - we will be hanging out again next Thursday, the 18th, 6:45-8:00PM at 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, McAllister Center - hope to see you there!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
