What a weekend!

It is the Monday after the annual church dinner and sale.  I would have to say it was a great success.  We had so many people come for the turkey dinner that we ran out of food!  Don't worry...for those that came towards the end and didn't get fixins I've offered a free meal at our next church dinner!  The Sunday school kids did a great job singing and I think the sale itself went very well too.  Before I forget let me say thank you  once again to everyone who contributed to the wonderful day!  It would not have been such a great day without everyone's help!
I know a lot of people want to know how much money was raised, and I suppose that has a bearing on how successful the day was, but on the other hand I can say it was a success even if we broke even after all the expenses.  It is always good for the church family to come together and work towards a common goal.  It is always good to see new faces and some familiar faces you haven't seen in awhile.  Big events like this remind us that the church is alive and well and that the success of the event is secured simply by the fact that so many people attended and helped out.  It is so easy to get caught up in numbers and membership and budgets and the doom and gloom of the nightly news reports that days like yesterday are essential to our spiritual health.  Days were the church family joins together for a common good reminds us of all the good that surrounds us and reminds us of the wonderful and caring community that all of us are apart of.
Incidentally that's why being a part of and attending church is such a vital part of our spiritual life.  Being part of something bigger, and actually taking part in services, reminds us that we are not alone on this journey called life.  We are reminded that there are a great number of people who are on this journey called life with us, and that those people care about us and are willing to help out when called upon.  Being an active part of the church family reminds us that life isn't all about us either.  We are called to love God and to love neighbor.  Big events in the church life are great, but the "normal" Sundays are important too.  We all need to be reminded from time to time that God loves us, that there is a community that loves us, and that we are part of something much bigger!  Join us on Sunday and bring a friend...won't you?

Cracks & Fixes add Character

Outside my window this morning I'm watching a crew fix the potholes in the road.  It'll be nice when it's all done, but there is a lot of work that goes into it before they are finished.  This crew is actually grinding out the bad spots, cleaning them out, adding oil and then putting the asphalt back in and packing it nicely with a roller.  I'm not an asphalt expert but I have to imagine these fixes are going to last longer than just throwing some patch down and letting the cars pack it in.  You know the quick fix that gets all over the under carriage of your car!  The quick fix would be cheaper, quicker and easier but not as good.  It got me to wondering how often we go for the cheap fix in our lives instead of the good longer lasting one.
We have gotten used to instant feedback in our lives.  We want our news instantly, we want our promotions at work instantly, we want our kids to listen instantly, and we expect almost anything in our lives to happen right away and to our satisfaction.  We've become conditioned to not having to wait for anything, and if we do have to wait it's the end of the world!  I think we've forgotten the old saying that sometimes the good things in life are worth waiting for.  This instant gratification culture has also caused us to not spend too much time working on anything.  We have come to expect God to work on our time table and to give us what we want instantly too.  Am I right?
Just like the road outside my office we all have cracks and potholes and areas in our lives that need to be patched and fixed.  If we're honest with ourselves we can all find areas of our lives where God is working on us or we know God should be working on us.  The trouble is we are either too busy or too stubborn to let God work on the cracks.  If we identify them and let God work in us we get discouraged when it takes too long or it might become a little painful and we wish for the instant patch.  The trouble with the instant fix is that it doesn't hold as well and soon we're patching the hole again. What we have to do is let God do the work.  Sometimes the fix isn't pleasant and it isn't easy.  The fix takes some grinding, some cleaning out, and even some packing back in.  The process may not be easy, quick or very pleasant, but the process will be complete and the crack healed.  Am I taking the road analogy too far? I hope not.
The truth is that somethings take time.  None of us are perfect and God wants to work with us to make us better people and people who reflect His love more perfectly.  It's a process that takes time.  It's a process that we have to open ourselves up to and allow God to work through us.  WE might not like the cracks that God identifies, but I guarantee that if we allow God to fix those cracks we'll like the finished product even better.  So...let's help God identify the potholes we need fixed in our lives and then commit to allowing God to patch them with us.