Traditions | Halloween

We have had a great evening tonight.  It has become a tradition for us to spend Halloween in our neighborhood Trick-or-Treating with our neighbors.  Everyone really participates and people sit outside in front of their houses and hand out candy.  It’s great getting to see all the kids dressed up in their costumes and groups of families walking the neighborhood together.  It’s really a great time and growing more and more fun every year.

As I sat and enjoyed the evening, I couldn’t help but think of all the traditions we have.  Visiting pumpkin patches, carving pumpkins, watching Charlie Brown, and treating with the neighbors.  It really makes for a great time and feels like community.

I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures from this year’s Halloween traditions and would love to hear about any you might have, that we can add to our list next year!  Happy Halloween!

   

Trash Talk

For those of you who know what the Greek word Skubalon means, I had plenty of it spewing from my mouth yesterday and I’m confessing today, I’m not proud of it.  When translated to English the word means “garbage” or even worse “dung.” So, what was coming out of my mouth yesterday was a bunch of “S–t.”

I’m sure we all have people in our lives we aren’t too fond of.  Someone, someplace, has crossed our path and we’ve either butted heads or just flat out don’t like who they are, what they stand for, and find it difficult to find good, positive things to say about them. 

I have someone like that in my life and yesterday a conversation came up at work and this person’s name was brought up.  I immediately started slamming them and didn’t have anything good to say.  My whole attitude changed and I became very negative and it really went down hill when a co-worker eluded to some things this person had recently said about me.  The trash talk became very toxic at that point.

I’m disappointed I allowed myself to do this.  I know better and regardless of how I feel about this person or how they feel about me, it doesn’t give me the right to slam them.  I’m supposed to be different.  I’m supposed to love everyone.  I’m supposed to stand up for the outcast, marginalized, and oppressed.  I’m supposed to support the underdog and I didn’t do that yesterday.

This morning while I was praying for God to be near to me and close to my heart, this, this Skubalon moment, was what he brought to my mind.  This is the thing he chose for me to work on today.

I’ll confess, it’s not really what I wanted to hear.  I was hoping for one of those great “feely” moments when you really know that God has been near.  Instead I got correction.  But, I should have expected it, because when you pray the prayer that Craig Groeschel recently asked all of us to pray at Catalyst, “God Ruin Me, God Heal Me, and God Stretch Me” then these are the kind of results we should expect to get.

Mind Messages

Here are some of the things I’ve thought about this morning and I’ve only been up for about an hour and a half, but felt they were worth sharing.

• My friend and room mate from college has a two year old little boy who has been in the hospital for over a week and the doctors are having a difficult time figuring out what is wrong.  They were first on my mind this morning and really need all of our prayers.  Pray for little Bode!

 

• I was struggling to think of what I would write about today, so I started thinking about our sponsor children.  We have a little boy and a little girl and I really need to send both of them a letter.  Sometimes I feel guilty and like a hipocrite because I sponsor two children by sending money, but I often fail to think about them, pray for them, and write to them.  God forgive me!

 

• I was thinking about reading the Bible this morning and where God would have me read.  The book of Acts came to my mind, so I’ll start reading there over the next few days and weeks.  Probably very appropriate as we start the Organic Church plant.

 

• I thought about Scott the homeless man I met a few weeks ago and wondered if he slept on the street last night or if he had shelter somewhere.  I wondered how cold he must be if he had to stay outside, as the temperatures dropped near freezing.  I remember how cold I was when I slept outside and woke up with frost on my sleeping bag.  I pray Scott has warmth today and will find the help he needs.

My advice for you today…pray for your friends and hold them close to your heart.  Find someone who is in need and help them in some way.  Trust God to direct you as you read and study his word and trust that you will grow deeply with him along this journey we call life.

Chosen by God

My wife and I were in the car on Saturday and had a great conversation about our special needs child.  We’ve both had recent conversations with people about the special situations surrounding their child, or grandchild, so it had both of us thinking about how blessed we really are.

Sure we are parents of a special needs boy, but we are so blessed.  God has been with us every step even when we often feel all alone.  Our son has his physical difficulties, but over all we have it pretty easy with him and he has a really sharp mind, so it makes it very easy for us to have conversations and discussions with him.

We have friends and know others who are not so fortunate and life is often difficult.  Some are constantly in the hospital, having surgeries, and for others maintaining a correct sugar level becomes a minute by minute chore.  It’s friends and acquaintances like this that makes me question the whole comment that people often make, “God chose you-special parents-for your special child.”

Give me a break!  This is where I’ve really struggled this weekend.  What you’re trying to tell me is, God has this shelf of embryonic souls and all of a sudden, one day, he decides to grab one off the shelf and say, “this ones special, so I’m going to give this one to Kyle & Joanna.” 

I think there are a few fatal flaws in this kind of thinking.  First, if that were true, then Heaven isn’t perfect, because this child, this soul, this spirit that gets sent to earth to become your child, in some way, has a flaw before it even arrives.  Not true!  Secondly, why would God chose a broken, chaotic, and dis-functional family to raise a special needs child, which happens all the time?  Christian people aren’t the only ones who have special needs children.  Special needs children are born to alcoholics, drug addicts, and child abusers every day.  So, once again, God chooses special people to take care of special children?  I don’t think so!

Here’s what I think.  Because of the sin and brokenness in this world, children are born with special needs, health problems, sickness, and difficulties.  God doesn’t predetermine or choose who these children go to, but he certainly does give those of us who have them the ability, strength, patience, love and grace to take care of them.  Those parents out there who may not know what love and grace is and haven’t had the privilege to experience it, may struggle more with having a special needs child, which often leads to a very high rate of divorce and brokenness, leaving one parent to bear the burden and responsibility of this special situation. 

God loves everyone equally and doesn’t have favorites.  He doesn’t choose special people to take care of special children any more then he chooses some people to be a pastor, a doctor, lawyer, or engineer.  He simply gives all of us a choice.  To live our lives with him no matter the circumstance, situation, or job we find ourselves in.  We simply need to trust him with everything.  Let him lead.  Let him bear the weight of what we are carrying.  And if we do this, life is a little easier to handle, because we aren’t the ones in control.