Relationships are work...

At Community of Joy, we believe relationships matter! And they should. Relationships are what most of us are craving. However, they are hard work... lots of give and take. Lots of time. Lots of forgiveness and understanding. Lots of listening and sharing. Lots of putting others before ourselves.

The thing that keeps coming back to me over and over these past few days is this... we can't have meaningful relationships with each other if we hold back and keep our struggles, challenges, and joys to ourselves. When we share them with each other, we find traveling companions. When we share them with each other, we allow others into the sacred journey of supporting one another.

It's natural that many of us keep our guard up. We've had past experiences of hurt and disappointment.... but when relationships matter, we can trust enough to let our guard down and share our journey with other travelers and if we get hurt in the process... there is forgiveness and working through the hurt that keeps the relationship moving deeper.

Relationships ARE hard work... but they are well worth it! And I believe that we were created for relationship!

How do you use your time...

Today's fog delay begs the question at our house... when you are given "extra" time, how do you use it wisely? I let the girls sleep in an extra hour and then I woke them up and told them that they had extra time to work on their rooms... they didn't like the idea! But I am trying to teach them that sometimes, when given extra time, you work on things that you need to do, but hadn't thought you would have time to do for a while.

Any ways, they did get some laundry done in the time and some things picked up in their rooms. Teaching this lesson, will take time... but we are on our way!

Taken tonight...

I must look like one gullible fool! Cuz I sure got sucker punched tonight at Food Lion. I usually give everyone the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise...

I had just purchased some milk and a few other things that we needed from Food Lion. Usually I use my check card, but I had a pocket of cash tonight because Caroline had just made her first installment on her car tonight before I left. So, I used cash.

After making my purchases, I went out to the parking lot and was chased down by a young lady in distress with a story about Food Lion not being able to cash her check and her car was broken down on the other side of K-Mart. She wondered if I had a few dollars so she could get some gas. I asked some questions, like, how she got there. She said she walked here. So, I took 3 dollars out of my pocket and gave it to her... then said, "that won't even buy a gallon of gas" which she responded to by saying, it was more than she had. So, I gave her the coins I had in my pocket as well and told her at least that would buy one gallon. She thanked me and then offered to let me see her license. Why, I don't know... told her I didn't need to see it. Then I asked her how she would get to her car and she told me her uncle was coming from Nanticoke and would take her. I should have asked her why he couldn't give her money for gas, but I kept quiet.

Then the manager from Food Lion came out and had a heated conversation with her. And she walked my way. I got in my van and watched where she was going.... she saw it was me and started walking toward K-Mart. I drove around in the parking lot and she thought I was gone so she jumped in a car where a guy was waiting for her... so, I drove over there and rolled down the window, and said, I thought you were broke down. She told me that the guy was taking her to her car. So, I said okay... but by this time I was not buying it... but what could I do? So, I left, but then turned around by DMV so that I could follow them... they got on Rt. 50 and headed into Salisbury and I got on their bumper, flashed my high beams and then turned off onto Phillip Morris and headed home... laughing at being taken. I think she scoped me out and saw that I got change from my purchase and that's why she asked me.

What a funny thing! I should have known better! But then my philosophy is and always has been to trust everyone until they prove that I can't and to say...I'd rather help someone who was conning me than not help someone who needed it... and to know that in the end, they will stand before God and answer for conning people. I don't want to answer for not helping people.

Oh Well... what a night!

LiveSTRONG...

Sunday, we will launch a new sermon series called LiveSTRONG. It will take a look at the New Testament Book of Philippians. I am looking forward to doing a series that progresses through a biblical book. Paul wrote Philippians as a letter to the church he established at Philippi while he was in prison. It is quite an awesome letter with lots of good things for us to talk about. I could spend a lot longer in the book than I am going to... 5 weeks is long enough. We will look at a chapter a week except the last chapter will be divided into 2.

LiveSTRONG... the advice of Paul's letter will help us to do just that!

LONG Day...

Got up this a.m. at 4:30 and left by 5:30 for Frederick for a District Pastors Gathering. Got back home around 6 p.m. Sure made for a LONG day.... and can't say it was very helpful. Fun to see some other pastors and good to spend time with 3 others from the shore as we rode together in my van...there is one more in May, but I don't plan to go to that one!

Standing in the Face of Trials....

As we experience the many trials, challenges, and obstacles of life, we can ignore them, run from them, or stand in the face of them. When we stand in the face of them, we learn that there is NO trial, challenge, or obstacle that is bigger than God. No matter how big they may be, God is BIGGER!

He doesn't always remove them from our path, but he ALWAYS is our companion as we go through the trial, challenge or obstacle!

Time to crow a little bit....

It's 11:15 p.m. and way past my regular Sat. p.m. bedtime! But I have to wait up for Caroline to get off work at the movies... a couple more weeks and she will be able to drive herself home.

The amazing thing about being up this late for me is that I am not even tired and I've had no caffine! Usually by 10 p.m. I have been asleep for a while in the lazyboy chair and if not, by 10, I am more than ready to go to bed and to sleep... but not tonight... I am pumped and need to CROW!

What an amazing congregation Community of Joy is! We just pulled off a major, for us, feat and did it with such finesse! We hosted 51 men for a sit down meal in our ministry center and we don't even have a kitchen! That fact alone, doesn't really phase any of us because we've been doing that for a long time... so long that it's what we do... but the guys who came and knew we don't have a kitchen were amazed! It was a LOT of work for some very special ladies... but wow... their hard work sure made an impression on our guests!

The food was fabulous, the entertainment and education wonderful, the service was better than most restaurants and the ambiance was first-class!

Countless people told me afterwards what a terrific job we did hosting this dinner... and you know I can't take any credit for it at all! Except to be one PROUD pastor who is grateful to be part of such a wonderful church family!

Doesn't she look good?

This is my latest weapon for Spring Gobbler season... a stuffed hen... she sure should draw them in. Can't wait! This should make drawing my bow with their spectacularly observant eyes a little easier.

Getting in the mood....

This week, I've been taking care of my friend's captive wild turkey flock while he is out of town. It's been fun... and it has really gotten me in the mood... just 13 more days until Spring Turkey Season opens and I am ready!

Watching these strutting toms and hearing them gobble sure gets my blood pumping. Can't wait! I'm gonna try taking my first tom with a bow this year! That will be a first for me, but I am ready for it and anxious to try the challenge. Also, gonna take my nephew out for his first bird this season... he is almost 10. And my friend and insurance agent wants to tag along... so, who knows... lots of experiences ahead!

Looking forward to those cool mornings out in the woods listening as the dawn chorus comes alive and puts on the most beautiful production.

Reminders....

It is so interesting how certain sights, smells, tastes, sounds, take us back in time to other places and experiences. I can't look at pansies without thinking about my Grandmother Grove... she absolutely loved planting pansies early in the spring. And so do I.... I planted these before easter at the ministry center and as I did I thought about the fun times I had as a boy staying with my grandparents on their dairy farm near Hagerstown, MD. I used to spend two weeks with them every summer. And I enjoyed long talks with my grandmother about all kinds of things. What great memories the pansies help keep alive!

Some Sad News...

I received a phone call this morning from Donna Clark saying that she learned that one of the guys in the shelter program was found dead. Frank Busta was also known as pitbull. Yes he had a drinking problem and yes he had been on the streets for 7 years (he told me this on Saturday) and yes he was the one who was run over by a train on the railroad track a while back and lost his one arm. It's so sad... when something takes over some one's life so much that they loose control. Frank had an alcohol problem and it got the best of him. So sad!!!!!

So sad to see so many in our world addicted to substances that rob them of the abundant life God desires for them!

My Favorite Time of Year...

Spring is absolutely my favorite time of the year! I love the greening grass, the flowering trees, the daffodils and the sounds of turkeys gobbling!

The ministry center has these two BEAUTIFUL Redbud bushes on the back side of the property that most folks miss.... didn't want you to miss them. So here they are.

They remind me of my years hunting turkeys in PA... one of the places I loved to hunt was a ridge top meadow that was filled with redbud or ironwood or judas trees -- which ever name you want to use. One morning, I dueled with a big tom up there... and he got the best of me!

It's interesting how the sight of something or the smell of something or the sound of something can transport a person back in time... That's where I go every time I see a redbud tree!

Reality sets in...

As a young preacher, I've stood by countless gravesides and shared the passage of scripture from Isaiah 40..."All people are like grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God will stand forever."

As I am enjoying the beauty of the flowers and flowering trees, especially the flowering cherry trees, I am reminded that they will soon fade... their beauty will be hidden from view. And the truth of this scripture rings out.

As I am in the final days of being a licensed driver accompanying my oldest daughter as she gains driving experience before getting her driver's license in a few days, I am reminded of the truth of this scripture. It seems like just yesterday, we were bringing Caroline home from the hospital... and now it has been well over 16 years. This is quite an adjustment... and it is a phase of fade... as we move farther along and as she graduates from High school in just a few short years and then college... and so on... the fade continues.

Reminds me that I want to take time to make the most of this vibrant stage of life I am in! Because it fades all too quickly! I want to take time to enjoy my children now and my wife now and the life I have now... so that as it fades, I don't have huge regrets.

And in the end... I am confident that as life fades, the word of the Lord will stand forever!

Glass Houses....

We all live in glass houses! That's why it's best not to throw too many stones at other people. I constantly hear folks pick an issue that they are passionate about and condemn people who fail at that issue... yet if that same person would take a few minutes to evaluate their own life... they would find that there is some issue that they are failing at too! You see, in God's eyes, a sin is a sin. And Paul says it right in Romans... "we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." It's a dangerous thing to elevate ourselves too high... for that makes the fall even harder.

Jesus' interaction with the woman caught in adultery is a great example here... the law said she should be stoned to death... but Jesus said that the one without sin should throw the first stone... no one did... all her accusers hung their heads and walked away... then Jesus did the greatest thing... he extended her grace and forgiveness.

I have a lot to learn from this exchange of Jesus! Think of what a different place our world would be if we were all less quick to point out someone else's faults and worked diligently on our own!

Assumptions....

Assumptions can sure get people in trouble. My former boss... from long ago, always looked out over her reading glasses and pointed her finger at you and said..."Assume Nothing!" And boy is she right!

This morning, Sharon and I were having a conversation and had both made assumptions about the situation... neither assumption was wrong... and yet both would have led us in very different courses of action. And that is one of the problems with assumptions...

Another problem with assumptions is that what you assume, just might not be!

Anyways... "Assume NOTHING!" is a good peice of advice!