I was thinking about what to talk about to Junior High students this weekend and I came up with the idea of having a thankful attitude. I think it makes sense since it’s Thanksgiving and all. And then I came across this video about Brenden Foster. It was the headline on Yahoo’s homepage. This is real news. It was refreshing to hear about someone doing something instead of fearing…I mean hearing about how bad everything is.
Last week our church did a focused-food-drive. We asked people to bring either canned meat or peanut butter in an effort to help the Open Arms Care Center here in Gilbert. This week the food was stacked up on the stage so we could see what generosity looks like when we function as the church. During the worship time I kept thinking about how in the Old Testament the Israelites would bring the choice cuts of meat to be offered as a sacrfice to God on the altar. Would God accept spam? Probably not. Pork was unacceptable so fake meat probably would be too. My intention is not to criticize our offerings of canned meat. A lot of people will be thankful to have something to eat. I do however think that God definitely would have accepted the peanut butter. I can just picture Aaron offering the peanut butter on the altar and then sampling some Skippy and it getting in his beard. (Check out Psalm 133:2 replacing oil with peanut butter). I wonder what burning peanut butter smells like.
Yesterday was Halloween. Experiencing Halloween here in Arizona for the past four years has been easy getting used to. Where I grew up Halloween was always affected by the weather. I used to pray that it wouldn’t rain because if it did that meant my costume had to incorporate some sort of rain gear. Even if it didn’t rain, my costume had to accommodate layers of clothing to keep out the cold. Those are issues that we don’t have to deal with here in Queen Creek (at least that’s the norm). Last night we moved our chiminea (fancy fire place) out to the driveway along with some patio furniture. We (Priscilla and her parents) ate dinner around the fire as we handed out candy to well over a hundred kids. It’s still strange for me to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters in 80-degree weather but it sure is comfortable.
I remember a time where Halloween meant free candy. What kid would argue this great idea (perhaps the son or daughter of a dentist)? So it was with much disappointment that my trick-or-treating days ended many years ago. It was a lot easier to just go to the store and buy a bag of candy—the kind I truly wanted—and not have to brave the cold wet weather that was part of Halloween. I noticed last night that there were a few older “kids” just hanging out with their friends who were trick-or-treating. They weren’t dressed up. Didn’t ask for any candy or perform any tricks. I would describe them as sad. Here they are going door-to-door watching their friends get candy—free candy. But I was able to make them smile by offering them something they technically didn’t deserve—free candy. And it was probably free in the truest sense. There were no strings attached. All the kids that dressed up got candy—but because they were dressed up. We were close to running out of candy and joked about printing off some Bible verses to pass out—they probably would have talked about God’s grace. Luckily we had just enough candy for everyone that came to the door and some of them got a little bit of grace as well.
Last night I got an unexpected phone call from a family that goes to our church. No life-threatening crisis. They had tickets to last night’s Phoenix Coyotes hockey game and wanted to know if I could go. I gladly accepted. I’m Canadian and I really like hockey. It’s frustrating being a hockey fan in the middle of a desert. For me to follow hockey here means I have to work at it. Back home in Canada hockey is the number one sport. It’s widely talked about and easy to follow. Anyways, last night’s game was a treat—perhaps it was grace in disguise? It was one of those things where I kept thinking, “I don’t deserve this.” The seats were amazing—I would have been happy sitting in the nosebleeds. It’s the first hockey game I’ve gone to wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops. The Coyotes were playing against the Washington Capitals who happen to have last year’s leading scorer—Alexander Ovechkin. Despite his super crazy speed and talent he was held off the scoreboard. The Coyotes ended up winning the game. It’s always a nice feeling walking away knowing your team won. (Kudos to the Brown family for their generosity)
A good friend of mine, Josh Barton, created a page for me to start blogging. I’ve thought about starting a blog in the past but wasn’t sure if I should. I’m a little skeptical for the simple reason I’m not sure anyone will read it. And should someone stumble upon my blog will it be worth their time. Since I’m not getting paid to write a blog it probably doesn’t matter much at all. So my reason for blogging at the moment is just for fun. Any dialogue that it creates hopefully will make all involved better off.
And so it begins.
