Tuesday Evening Reflections

This weekend was a real whirlwind of events. Taylor, Papa Bill, and myself went to a model train show on Saturday morning before the party. Taylor really had a pretty good time even though he couldn’t see the layouts real well because of his height. He was also bummed because he had some money burning a hole in his pocket that I kept refusing to let him buy some overpriced model boxcar. We then came home to his constant begging to get out my old layout to get it to run. It is going to need a lot of work to be back to running–not something a 6 year old wants to hear. All that needs to happen is that it runs . . . and fast!!

Saturday evening we had Taylor’s birthday party at Godfather’s Pizza! What an AWESOME decision to do the party somewhere else than the Stone “mansion!” We were home around 8:30 p.m. with an empty sink and dishwasher, no stains to clean up, and surprisingly pretty rested after something as crazy as a 6 year old’s birthday party can be! I vote for an “off-site” party next year as well! The boys went to bed on time and really crashed after all of the sugar, pizza, and video games!

I think we really hit on a great topic with our new series called Beyond Limits. We had a lot of people gone. I think a bunch of people were sick. I know of at least a half dozen whole families that were sick. I think the cold snap that followed such warm temperatures really made people sick. . . I know our boys have head colds. Overall it was a really great day. It is always good to start a new series, but I am really excited about this one in particular because I believe it is so applicable to ALL of us.

I got an email from a person that basically said that they weren’t planning on being in town at all, but stayed home and providentially came to CFC for the first time. The sermon really resonated with them and is the beginning of a long process of healing and re-evaluation of values and priorities. Praise God! That makes my year!! Sometimes the tangible fruit is very few and far between.

I also heard some horrible news of another moral failure of a colleague (other than the one mentioned in my sermon on Sunday). A huge word picture for me of the need for boundaries in ministry and life. It is pretty difficult to talk about right now, but maybe later on I can write about what God has been teaching me from a distance. All I know is that God has really been hammering me about this subject for basically the last 6 months or so and He has impressed upon me that we MUST talk about these difficult issues. We will continue to bring up the difficult subjects that none of us want to talk about, but God demands it if we are going to continue to be salt and light in our world.

The shooting at Virginia Tech has really made me remember the Columbine shooting . . . specifically Craig Scott, a survivor that came to Hopedale when I was a student pastor. We had a Columbine Redemption series of meetings where Craig and his dad talked about his sister Rachael. He was in the library when the gunmen came in and shot his classmates. He was able to tell his story of how he has had to forgive the gunmen and that same forgiveness can be had from Jesus. It was a powerful several days here in Ozark.

I am reminded of all of the positive things that happen out of tragedy. . . mainly salvation. I pray that salvation comes out of this horrible tragedy. I pray that God will continue to draw all people to Himself. I pray that we would be able to show them how to find salvation. . . because our time is short. As the apostle Paul says, our lives are but a “vapor.” We must therefore “make the most of every opportunity.”