RIGHT NOW!

I was reminded in a really nice song this morning to “Breathe it in and breathe it out, Listen to your heartbeat, there’s a wonder in the here and now, It’s right there in front of you, And I don’t want you to miss, The miracle of the moment.” Do something special, just something little, with someone you love today!

Thankful

I get to preach this coming weekend… about Communion and Thanksgiving and how they’re connected and what the idea of Eucharist means to the church, what it meant to the early church, and what it’s supposed to do to us.

I’m thankful for so much today. I’m thankful for some gorgeous weather, for my family, especially my wife, for food in my belly, and gas in my tank… And I’m thankful for coffee (REALLY thankful for coffee…). But what I’m most thankful for today is that being thankful means I can do something for someone else, to pass it on, to “pay it forward”… and make someone else thankful by what God gives me to do.

Do something for someone today… Make them thankful!

Keep meeting together… for the fellowship AND the food!

Hebrews tells us to keep meeting together and not be “Lone Ranger” Christ-followers. Actually, I think most of the New Testament does. Actually, now that I think of it, I’m pretty sure the whole Bible tells us this.

But recently I’ve interacted with a small handful of individuals who are trying to be Lone Rangers. I’ve exhorted them that this doesn’t work. I know, I tried it for a while years ago.

There’s a few things scary about this kind of Christ-following life. First, you miss out on some essential fellowship (which includes some great food… not an unimportant thing it seems, in light of Scripture). Second, you get “dull” because now iron isn’t sharpening iron. Oh, you can get all your doctrinal and biblical ducks in a row from books and TV and radio preaching perhaps, but your LIFE isn’t being sharpened. Third, okay, this one isn’t so spiritual and maybe it’s even selfish, but it’s just way more fun to do life in community.

Share some time with some people this week… just to do LIFE together… And have some food, too!

And if you could share your stories and insights, that would be great. I have a message that I’m preparing for later this year on community… I’d love to even write it in community!

The best part…

I love telling this story, so I thought I’d post it here in case anybody else gets as much of a kick out of it as I do.

There were 8 kids in our house, which is a big source of real interesting stories as you can imagine, and occasionally we’d have steak, and boy did we love it. (I still do.) But my dad used to do something that when I was a kid I understood one way, and when I became a man (and a married man at that) I understood another.

My dad would, as soon as the steak was off the grill, cut off the best part of it and give it to my mom. Ther was never any discussion. None of us were ever getting that real nice tender portion. No, sir. I thought my dad was trying to show my mom how much he loved her. And he was, and I’m sure that was the main point. But there was something else.

My dad was showing his kids how you treat someone you love. He was modeling it. He never “taught” us how to do it. He showed us instead. This is the same guy who when he came home from work put down his briefcase and gave my mom a kiss and a hug. Immediately. We learned by example, and I hope we learned well. If you love someone, you put them before yourself. Whether it’s loving God (we NEVER missed church) or loving your family (something my parents did, in my humble opinion, as perfectly as any parents ever have).

They made rituals in their lives, traditions that made this live and breathe in everything they did and everything they were. Think of some kind of ritual you can put in your life to do this kind of thing for the people you love, your spouse, your kids, your parents. Show the world how to love by doing it.