We are learning as a family the value of setting up traditions. One tradition we just launched is if one receives a gift for his birthday he has to give something like it away to someone in need.
Our youngest celebrated her birthday and we decided to implement this. Instead of doing it for her only when she received the gift we made all the children sacrifice a toy. What my middle child did blew me away. My son and our younger daughter brought toys that they really did not care for. But my older girl brought her favorite toy out and told us to give that away to a child in need!
One of the challenges that the mainstream media and popular culture present us is how much can we accumulate, store and hoard to ourselves. It seems like the rules of the game are who has the most toys wins the game. So we figure out how to store more clothes into our closets and more things into our garages and attics.
What a novel idea my daughter has? What about giving something that we even like away whenever we receive something new? (Maybe it will eliminate our need to pay for storage for things we don't use:-)
So this post is a challenge to all of us this week to give something we like away. It will help us to understand that the thing isn't more important than the person we give it to and if nothing else it will reduce the clutter - in our homes and in our hearts.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Cooperation
What you see in this picture is a group of youth from the Ebenezer church in Minneapolis, MN praying over 127 boxes containing 27,432 meals that will feed 75 other youth for 1 year! This was all packaged in less than 2 hours. What great things can be done when we work together.
This youth group joined with other groups very different from them to package food with an organization called Feed My Starving Children. (www.fmsc.org) It's interesting that hunger and pain know no color. But cooperation and relief are color blind as well. When we work together we realize that we have more in common than we ever knew. Let's seek ways to work and serve together.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
You win therefore I win
Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 18:3 NLT
A few young adult men have started a basketball camp at our conference center in Kansas City. It takes place at 10 am on Sunday mornings - a time that is usually earlier than most Adventists like to be up and about. It's been a real blessing seeing the interaction of the young boys and these dedicated men.
Now truth be told most of our boys are just learning the fundamentals of the game. The coaches are doing great just by keeping them from running into each other sometimes. But they are learning and getting better.
My son is 6 and he is in a group where the ages range between 5 and 8. Today I saw a really awesome sight. In my son's group they were practicing shooting. Imagine these boys using all their strength to get the ball up to the 8 foot basket. They each had a turn and I would say they were hitting on about 50% of the tries at first.
But the best part happened later on when they began to encourage each other. They began cheering each other's name as they got ready to shoot. They would congratulate one another whether they scored or missed. But when one scored the celebrations looked like the pandemonium over a game winning shot at the NBA finals. I sat in awe. Each boy got more excited for someone else's success than their own.
What if we lived like that as adults. I celebrate with such abandon when you were blessed with a job, your children did well, or you got a spiritual victory. Even if I wasn't experiencing my best day (even when I lost my job and my kids weren't acting right). I suspect we would all be winners because when you win, I win and when I win, you win.
You see those boys taught me that we are all connected. We are on the same team. Your victory is my victory and vice versa. Let's try celebrating someone else's success as if it were ours and watch us all become winners.
A few young adult men have started a basketball camp at our conference center in Kansas City. It takes place at 10 am on Sunday mornings - a time that is usually earlier than most Adventists like to be up and about. It's been a real blessing seeing the interaction of the young boys and these dedicated men.
Now truth be told most of our boys are just learning the fundamentals of the game. The coaches are doing great just by keeping them from running into each other sometimes. But they are learning and getting better.
My son is 6 and he is in a group where the ages range between 5 and 8. Today I saw a really awesome sight. In my son's group they were practicing shooting. Imagine these boys using all their strength to get the ball up to the 8 foot basket. They each had a turn and I would say they were hitting on about 50% of the tries at first.
But the best part happened later on when they began to encourage each other. They began cheering each other's name as they got ready to shoot. They would congratulate one another whether they scored or missed. But when one scored the celebrations looked like the pandemonium over a game winning shot at the NBA finals. I sat in awe. Each boy got more excited for someone else's success than their own.
What if we lived like that as adults. I celebrate with such abandon when you were blessed with a job, your children did well, or you got a spiritual victory. Even if I wasn't experiencing my best day (even when I lost my job and my kids weren't acting right). I suspect we would all be winners because when you win, I win and when I win, you win.
You see those boys taught me that we are all connected. We are on the same team. Your victory is my victory and vice versa. Let's try celebrating someone else's success as if it were ours and watch us all become winners.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Learn the Game!
31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God[d] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Matthew 6:31-33
Yesterday I took my family to a baseball game. It's becoming a bit of an annual tradition to go to one game each summer. I'm an unapologetic Yankee fan and we live in Kansas City. I support the Royals because I have no choice.
I go to the games to see the athletic skill, to hopefully see a few home runs and some Sports Center highlight reel plays. My family on the other hand enjoys another part of the experience. They have fun, not watching the game, admiring the fielding, being blown away by the velocity of the pitching nor the power of the hitting. They enjoy what happens between innings and during stoppages in play. They love to do the claps, to get up and dance and to see if Ketchup will defeat Mustard and Relish.
They don't enjoy the game, they enjoy what goes on as bonus features. The reason for this is they really don't understand the game. In the game yesterday Ichiro Suzuki hit a home run and made an amazing catch to end the game. Neither of these things fazed them because they don't know who he is (perennial All-Star and future Hall of famer) and didn't really pay attention to either feat. I guess we get caught up in the bonus stuff when we don't understand the game.
That is like the folk who watch the Superbowl only for the commercials. It's entertainment value isn't based on what the two titans of the gridiron do on the field but what Budweiser, GoDaddy and Monster.com come up with during their 30 seconds and what happens during half time. They don't understand the game so they are wrapped up in the bonus features as if they were the main attraction.
I realize it's like that with us and life. If life were a game, then many of us would be living for and getting excited about the bonus features: the weekend, getting a new car, finding the dress we like in our size, climbing the career ladder, catching the eye of that person we've had our eye on. We live our lives with an almost single-minded pursuit after these things.
Well the one who invented the game and mastered it, Jesus, says that all that stuff is just bonus (it get's added on). He says the real deal is seeking first God's Kingdom. Put His agenda first. Run after that. Chase after things like lifting up humanity, worshiping and serving God and dying daily to ourselves. Keep your eyes on that. Don't miss that in your pursuit of the bonus stuff. In fact take your mind off the bonus stuff....He'll throw it in for free.
I need to teach my kids and wife the game of baseball so that they'll want to sit and watch during the game and get up during the breaks rather than the other way around. Jesus wants to teach us the way to win the game of life...Let Him do it.
Matthew 6:31-33
Yesterday I took my family to a baseball game. It's becoming a bit of an annual tradition to go to one game each summer. I'm an unapologetic Yankee fan and we live in Kansas City. I support the Royals because I have no choice.
I go to the games to see the athletic skill, to hopefully see a few home runs and some Sports Center highlight reel plays. My family on the other hand enjoys another part of the experience. They have fun, not watching the game, admiring the fielding, being blown away by the velocity of the pitching nor the power of the hitting. They enjoy what happens between innings and during stoppages in play. They love to do the claps, to get up and dance and to see if Ketchup will defeat Mustard and Relish.
They don't enjoy the game, they enjoy what goes on as bonus features. The reason for this is they really don't understand the game. In the game yesterday Ichiro Suzuki hit a home run and made an amazing catch to end the game. Neither of these things fazed them because they don't know who he is (perennial All-Star and future Hall of famer) and didn't really pay attention to either feat. I guess we get caught up in the bonus stuff when we don't understand the game.
That is like the folk who watch the Superbowl only for the commercials. It's entertainment value isn't based on what the two titans of the gridiron do on the field but what Budweiser, GoDaddy and Monster.com come up with during their 30 seconds and what happens during half time. They don't understand the game so they are wrapped up in the bonus features as if they were the main attraction.
I realize it's like that with us and life. If life were a game, then many of us would be living for and getting excited about the bonus features: the weekend, getting a new car, finding the dress we like in our size, climbing the career ladder, catching the eye of that person we've had our eye on. We live our lives with an almost single-minded pursuit after these things.
Well the one who invented the game and mastered it, Jesus, says that all that stuff is just bonus (it get's added on). He says the real deal is seeking first God's Kingdom. Put His agenda first. Run after that. Chase after things like lifting up humanity, worshiping and serving God and dying daily to ourselves. Keep your eyes on that. Don't miss that in your pursuit of the bonus stuff. In fact take your mind off the bonus stuff....He'll throw it in for free.
I need to teach my kids and wife the game of baseball so that they'll want to sit and watch during the game and get up during the breaks rather than the other way around. Jesus wants to teach us the way to win the game of life...Let Him do it.
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