BST's Blog

OK, so "potential new family member" is now NON-potential family member. An 8 month old Cocker is so not what we need right now. Not to mention that in her short visit to our house she immediately gobbled up Ella's PB&J sandwich right out of her hand. Major drama, as you can imagine. Nope, Libby will find a happy home with someone else who doesn't have small children.

What a day! I had lunch with an old family friend. Her parents where some of my main Spiritual influences at ACU. She and her husband were huge influences on me when I was here back in 1990 doing my internship at Reunion Records. Although she is 15 years my senior, she's always been like a big sister to me. She went through a difficult divorce 2 years ago. The "church" really treated her horribly. Friends pulled away, conversations became awkward, close friends believed the gossip that was spreading. She is good buds with Amy Grant who told her at the beginning what to expect from Christians. She was right. Amy has had to endure all kinds of ridicule and judgment from people who have no clue what her situation was. It's so much easier to judge than to walk through difficult times with family...community. My friend shared with me today that her faith is still in tact, she loves the Lord, she just can't stand Christians. How many of us have felt that way before? (I'm raising my hand.) I wish I had had a video camera with me and taped our two hour conversation. I wish people who warm the pew on Sundays could get a glimpse of how others view social Christianity. Dan Kimball (author of Emerging Church and Emerging Worship--two MUST reads) did a video interview of random people in his city asking their views on Jesus--almost 99% positive. When he asked the same people their opinion of Christians, it was the exact opposite response. We live in a culture that is shifting--we're not just in a generation gap. People are craving real, authentic faith. Hearing my friend speak of her pain today only reminded me and convicted me all over again that if we are to be about Kingdom business, it will look very different than what we're doing these days.

One last interesting moment happened tonight. After I got the girls in bed and asleep (Sheryl is decorating for Bfast w/Santa) I went outside to continue draping white lights over bushes...something that once you begin you're sort of committed to seeing through to the bitter end. Camille, our neighbor across the street lost her 33 year old husband last year to Lou Garrick's disease. Her mother who had moved in to help with Jeff found out she had cancer and died within a few months. Needless to say, it's been a rough year for her. As I was slaving away covering bushes, Camille appeared in our driveway with a warm, fresh out of the oven, coconut pie. She apologized for not being a "good neighbor" and not being around so much lately. I wanted to crawl under the pavement. I've had a lot of great intentions there and have had very little follow through. Here she was being Jesus to me. We had a great conversation and I hope she's coming to our life group soon on Sunday night. I was convicted of Kingdom again tonight. We need to make time to be with her.

It's been one of those days where the Lord speaks in strange ways. I needed to hear His voice like this. He is good to show himself in unlikely places. He is good to strip me of self absorption and wake me up to the real hurts of those right under my nose. He is good to remind me AGAIN of what we're here to do and be about...so much of which happens OUTSIDE the church building. Thank you, Lord for your mercy!