The Fabric of our Lives

Ever notice how amazingly our lives are knit together? We spent some time last night noticing how God has brought us together. So many of us, from so many different places and times, different financial situations, different ages, different relationships and yet there we sit, every other Thursday night, our lives intertwined - these are the best friends i have in the world! They are amazing! We talked through a couple of them - it baffles the mind to think of how we have come together. Now, all of us, dong our best to look behind the usual of the American dream, to find something More out of life - to savor and appreciate the wonder of a God who would love us so much as to bring us together in the midst of our lives!

So, if having some friends who actually accept you no matter what you offer them sounds good, or if you are sick of life as usual in the US, and are looking for something More, you might want to join us - we will be hanging out December 1st, 645-800pm at MCAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.

and, if you are already trying to live this way you might just happen to notice the people around you who you love and who love you and how your lives have come to be woven together, you might just take a second and thank the God who loves you enough to fill your life with those people - and invite Him into the moment with you - it might just change your perspective!


hope to see you soon

More Pix from Shoes

Love via Shoes

What if there was a group of people that loved? Really loved? What if the questions that lie in our hearts about our country and whether anyone really cares about anyone else anymore were answered by a simple group of people learning to live life differently than the rest of the country? What if that love got demonstrated in a tangible way, with something that would be meaningful to almost anyone?

After all love requires giving of yourself. Sacrificing. Being present when it is not easy. It involves forgiving and trying to understand someone else. It involves spending time when it is not easy and there is little to gain for yourself. love is focused on the other person's needs, not your own.

But love is also the greatest thing in the whole world. The joy in love exceeds any other joy that there is - the pain in love may exceed any other pain that there is too, but the joy is bigger than the pain. The joy is well worth the pain, no question.

Well, all of these things are happening, right here in Lafayette and last Friday we had this wonderful chance to share the love we are learning to expeerience in daily life. We are sick of everyday Americanism of get more and more and more. But, we are also ready to do something different about life, or more specifically WITH life.

This was exemplified this past Friday at our 2011 Love Your Feet Day. About 20-25 of s took the day off from work and our schedules to be together and share the day with some of the folks in our own town that needed help the most. We invited anyone who needed help afffording shoes to join us and they came - at the end of it all, we were tired, but we had given love and been witness to the giving of love to hundreds of people. We gave away around 700 pairs of new shoes!!!

As part of my time on Friday, I had the joy of being able to tell people who werre coming to pick up their shoes that they were not being given shoes by some big fancy organization with government funding, but rather, they were being given shoes that were paid for by the money from the bank accounts of the people who were handing them the shoes! The expression on their faces melted. They were shocked to tears, and they exploded with gratitude and near disblelief that anyone would value them that much to spend hard earned money to buy shoes for them. They sensed the love in the room - it was no longer about shoes anymore, but about love and meaning. You see, they left with new shoes but mostly with new found respect for who they are made to be. For, at More than more, we value them. And if we do, maybe they should too!!

We spent time sitting on the floor and reading books with kids. We spent moments observing people as they removed their rag-like shoes in the hallway and slipped on their new shoes, then took a second to just look at their feet in them - smiling - feeling their feet feel good and their spirits feel valued. We saw children with little hair, grin widely when reminded that they are beautiful. We saw people confused that any simple group of people could really love like this without an agenda of some kind and without expecting anything in return. We saw individual members of More than more so broken hearted over those who came to late to sign up, take the names themselves and go buy the shoes after all the Love Your Feet was over. We saw people who had really never heard of More than more before crying tears of joy as they simply observed the giving of the day. We saw people who felt so little like they mattered that they did not want shoes for themselves, even though they needed them, only for their kids - only to be overwhelmed with gratitude when they realized that the shoes (and the love and value) could be for them too!

In short, it was a great way to spend a day! It was not all easy - there were some who were less than thankful, even hurtful. We were tired at the end, after it all, giving that sacrificially is not typical, or lightly done. But it was sooooo worth it!

In the evening, we spent a long time sitting around a campfire and sharing stories and challenges - with one end result:

We are going to do everything we can to live out this kind of love and mission in our everyday life, not just on Love Your Feet Day!

If this sounds like something you would like to be a part of, we would love to have you join us - we will be hanging out together at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, from 6:45-8:00 PM this Thursday - the 3rd of November - of course there will be free,excellent childcare!

What does it mean to believe?

So, i had to tell you about a couple things that have happened in the last week - once again my children have humbled me...

So, Tuesdays we go to school early for my oldest's prayer group - but this only for Junior Higher's - so me and my 2 younger children spend some time talking to God together and learning something. This Tuesday we read a section of in my son's Bible about faith. Now faith is one of those fancy Christian words that people talk about a lot but i'm not sure what it looks like in everyday life, if you know what i mean. So, i was trying to explain to them that having faith means that you believe that what you hope for will be true - and the best kind of faith is when what you hope for is good and true and pure, not to get new xbox games or for your worst enemy to break their ankle or something like that - it is best when it is when you hope for what God would want in each situation...It was a good conversation and i think they understood what i meant but it is hard to explain and harder still to live.

We finished and they went to their classes and on with their days, and i with mine.

Then the very next morning we were talking with God about some friends of ours who are being evicted by their landlady, who seems to be downright evil and who had forbidden them from fixing their sewer - leaving them with no place to go for now and having to go to the neighbor's house to do laundry, brush their teeth, wash dishes, etc. Let's make it clear, they were offering to even pay for the repairs, which they should not have had to, and she wouldn't let them. So, as i was talking to the kids, i said that we should pray for these friends, that they would find a place to live and that God would help them in the meantime.

Well, i came time for the kids to pray and Sophia, the youngest started out - she talked to God about family and friends and our days and our neighbors - all the usual things and then she went on to talk to Him about our friends - "Help them to find a place to stay and take care of them. And please help their mean landlady to have a soft and loving heart and to see how great life can be with You. Help her not to be mean anymore." Then, one at a time, they each prayed for first our friends and then the mean landlady.

I just almost couldn't take it. I had just been taught a lesson in faith. You see, i could give talks about faith and i believe God will give our friends the perfect place to stay and that He will take care of them. But, until my kids satarted talking to Him, i never even considered trying to believe that He would reach down into the heart of that mean lady and bring healing to her hurting heart. But, my kids saw through her meanness to her broken heart - to whatever it is that makes her so mean. And more than that, they saw that God could and wanted to, help her just as much as us, our family, our neighbors and our friends. They seem to understand faith much better than i do - maybe this Tuesday they should lead our time together!

The Truth is, there is no one beyond the reach and love of the God who made all that is - He wants everyone to have life that is full of wonder and freedom.

If you are sick of living in a world that is just not seeing all there is, we would love to have you join us - we will be hanging out at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette, from 6:45-8:00PM this Thursday, October 20th. We would love to meet you - and maybe we can open up our minds a little more than usual!

The Amazing Diversity of our Minds!

So, after talking about what More than more meant to us, we had some time, as we always do, to notice the amazingness of God and to notice the amazingness of people and their brokenness.

We began by talking about the way we think. I related a quote given me, and shared with permission, by a patient with ADD. He came into my office and his presenting complaint to the nurse was "Because you can't change the world if you can't focus." Now, why is that so important?

Because, he realizes that he has something amazing in him that could change the world, but he cannot seem to get his mind to focus long enough to get to it.

Why will he change the world? Well, let me tell you with a question.

If you want to balance your checking account, make a budget, get everything to add up perfectly, stay on schedule, what kind of a person do you ask to help you? Proabaly not someone with ADD. You would be looking for someone with a compulsive tendency, very organized and structured, right??

But, if you are stuck in your thoughts, trapped in a box of ideas from the past that you just can't seem to out-dream. You are bumping into a problem with the ame solutions and just can't seem to get past the usual ways of thinking. You are blank and just can't dream any more ideas. Who do you ask for help? Do you run to the compulsive person who is doing your books? Or do you ask your buddy with ADD and tell him not to take his medicine?!

I think you are getting the idea now. So many people consider their mind type and their thought life to be a handicap of some kind. They hate that the numbers all need to add up - they don't like being so organized and anal. Or they hate their tendency to wander and wonder in their thoughts - they just want to accomplish things and they can't get their heads out of the clouds long enough to do it. Yet, on a second look, we see the value in the organized and compulsive mind - someoone needs to keep everything reigned in and moving in a positive direction. And at the same time, we see the value in the ADD mind - ready to imagine outside the box,to dream new dreams, new combinations of dreams. To unleash their mind on the unsolvable!

Isn't it amazing? Now, seriously, how, by accident, did we all develop so differently and yet so much like pieces of a puzzle - perfectly fitting together to make sense. Put an ADD person with a compulsive person and they may irritate each other, but they will gt so much done and complement each other amazingly. No, this variability in our minds that leads to such amazing possibilities is obviously an expression of the creativity of a God who loves us deeply (and who clearly has a sense of humor).

So, the next time you notice the difference beteen how you think and how you want to, or how you think and the person next to you does, notice. Pay attention for just a second. And then thank the God who made you that way. Invite Him into the moment with you. Ask Him to be part of your days. You see, why would God go to so much effort to make us so amazing only to abandon us? The answer? He didn't - He very much wants to be a part of your life. And as He becomes more and more a part of your life, your perspective will change - you will begin to have a life that opens up and is More than you ever dreamed. I hope you'll try it!

Hope to see you next Thursday at McAllister Center - just off 20th and Schuyler - in Lafayette - from 6:45-8:00PM.

Have a thoughtful week!

The intro from last time is too much to miss!

More than more last week was a good time - if you were there, i'm so glad and if you were not, you missed out.

I don't usually restate our introductory/relax and chill out question on the blog - partly because sometimes the answers are a little too personal and partly because sometimes the blog entries are too long...but this time i must:

The intro question was, "Describe what More than more means to you in 1 sentence or less."

The answers were humbling.

"Family"
"Acceptance"
"Noticing the amazingness of God and people"
"Caring"
"Seeing life differently"
"Living beyond the usual American way"

These are just a few - i was nearly in tears, as people of all walks of life (one of whom came from lunch break just to be with us and his wife! - thanks Kale) gave voice to the fact that when a group of people begins to notice God and invite Him into their worlds and notice each other and the people around them, both their value and their brokenness - lives are changed. It was cool.

This, if for no other reason, is a reason to join us. Come hang out with us next Thursday night - October 20th - from 6:45-8:00Pm at McAllister Recreation Center. If you are tired of the usual life, a dose of some acceptance and caring and healthy family might be just what you need.

Paths, Creeks, and Freezers

I wanted to take a couple minutes and share with you a couple things that have struck me in the last few days.

First, on Saturday morning I was sitting in my tree stand out back behind my house, honestly not really caring much if a deer came or not. I was watching this little chipmunk family who inhabits the space i use once in a while scurry back and forth through an old hollow log (actually wondering how someone seriously got Alvin and the Chipmunks from these little things and kinda wishing they would stand up on their hind legs and start singing...)gather nuts and im sure ration them for winter. I was watching the leaves fall, one by one - it was not very windy and it is a beautiful thing to watch the leave saunter their way to the ground. It was a nice morning.

As i looked around, i looked down the path - this is the direction that the deer usually come from, if they come, which is not usually. This time of year most all of the leaves have not yet fallen and so i can only see a little way down the path, especially from where i sit 15 or so feet in the air. It seemed the path was a place i could walk down - have actually, a lot of times, especially in the May mushroom hunting season. I could walk down a way, check things out, maybe turn left up the hill, or go right, off into some of the meadows down the way - they might be pretty this time of year. But, as i thought of the path, i thought of what i could do and where i could go - it was like the two thoughts jumped off each other - 1st the thought of the path and then right after, the thought of going and doing. The path became an example of my life - go and do, go and do, go and do - this is so much the way i live...

Then, as if drawn, i heard the gurgle of the south fork of the wildcat creek to my right - it is low right now - probably only about a foot where i sit and there is a little roughness to the water there - enough to make an occasional bubbly, gurgly, creek sound - i love it - music to my sometimes worn soul. Then, i remembered the path. But, the creek was not like the path. The creek just moved. It had no direction in particular it was trying to go, no choices to make, no initiatives to pursue - it was simply following along its course. And, before i could think about it, i longed to be more like the creek. I so wanted to not worry and fret about the choices of the paths or to find myself throwing all of my passion into simply going and doing - it seems that i get quite enough of that and it seems to lead me away from the REALLY important things in life. I wanted to be able to follow God in a creek-like way - to be so aware of where He wanted me to be, to be so filled with the noticing of Him and His ways that i could simply live life and follow the course He had plotted out for me - even though sometimes the water is gurgly and sometimes it is smooth - occasionally there is a major boulder in the way - if i could live with the creek banks of His love and guidance all the time, it seems that it would be ok...

Then, there was one more thing. This was today - now a lot of hours since i left the forest - and quite a different thing that struck me. We had our friend Stephanie over for dinner and we were all talking and somehow the packing of freezers came up. This is a longstanding joke at our house, because as wonderful a person as my wife is, she is not a good freezer packer. I was joking, as i often do, that if you pull something out of the freezer when Melissa has packed it, you might want to have steel toed boots on - which poses an issue when you are sitting out some meat for the next day and you have snuck downstairs in your underwear - because it is a little silly to be in steeltoes and undies - but ill leave that one alone for now. You see, Melissa packs the freeer with slope - and all the slope is pointing out of the freezer - to your toes!! So, be careful if you're in the freezer! Anyway, we were all laughing about this and one of the girls said that you have to be careful because sometimes you might pull one small thing out and then the whole freeze might fall on you - as if it was all balanced delicately on that one pack of bacon or something. Well, that set me thinking. Sometimes i feel like that freezer. I feel like i am just so unstable (i know this comes as a surprise to some of you) that if just one thing is moved, i will come tumbling down - all my confidence and self-esteem and everything else, all balanced on a pack-o-bacon!!! It makes me mad - i want so badly to be more stable, more consistent, more like so many people i know that nothing seems to ever ruffle them. I get frustrated with who God made me to be.

So, here's the thing: I know that i do not want to just live the ordinary American life - like the path - always going and doing - always choosing my own way - never noticing, never depending on God. I want to live more like the creek - ready to just rest and follow God wherever He leads me. But, i am sure frustrated by my lack of stability! But, the truth is that my instability may be the very key to my creeklikeness! You see, if i was always stable, always had it all figured out, never got ruffled or upset or hurt, i think i would just always choose my way through life and never get off the path and into the creek. Instead, i find myself reeling with every package of bacon that someone takes from my freezer, and as frustrating as it is, i find myself looking to God and His control and soon find myself drifting down the creek of His guidance, noticing and loving and at peace with life!

So, tonight i am glad that i am unstable - can't believe im saying that - but i pray that you will be too, if that's what it takes to help you find the Truth in this life - and to be able to notice God's way in every day.