Where 2 Or 3 Are Gathered In My Name

Last night, was my M.E.A.T. night.  M.E.A.T. stands for Men Eating And Talking.  This is a small group of men that I’ve been meeting with for almost a year.  We meet every week on Wednesday nights at a local diner.  Usually, we have five to seven men who show up for a cup of coffee, a dessert, and informal discussion about a hodgepodge of topics.  This group is a break from the small groups that I’ve been part of in the past in that there’s no curriculum and there’s not really a designated leader.  It’s challenging for me to be part of this group, but it’s also refreshing to feel acceptance and inclusion as a group member and not a group leader.

The last couple of weeks the group numbers have been small.  Summer has a way of doing this as people are away on vacation or attending to other summer activities and responsibilities.  When I got the e-mails last night that there would only be a few of us again this week, I was tempted to stay home.  But I was reminded of this verse from Matthew 18:20 –

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

It turns out that it was a great night to be at the group.  I’m so glad I was there to gather with these men – to enjoy good food and sweet fellowship.  It wasn’t just the guys – God was there with us also.

Are you part of a small group?  What does your summer schedule and attendance look like?

Balancing Excellence and Grace

Monday night, I ventured out to a local church to enjoy the local fireworks from their lawn.  The church did a great job advertising for the event.  The parking lot was full when we arrived, and the traffic directors helped us find a parking spot quickly.  As we unloaded chairs from our cars, we were invited to enjoy free hot dogs, popcorn, and water from a table setup near the church building.  We found a place to put our chairs and blankets along with everyone else.  And we settled down in our spot as we patiently waited for the fireworks to commence.  Suddenly, we started to hear and see some amateur fireworks in the neighborhood next to the church.  Then off in the distance over the trees, we could see the tops of a professional fireworks display.  These were the fireworks we were waiting for only our view was mostly obstructed by the trees.

Honestly, I was initially disappointed.  My wife and kids were looking forward to the fireworks, and I was responsible for bringing them to a place that offered less than spectacular views of the show.  I was slightly embarrassed as many people who came to the church’s property were obviously upset.  I’m sure many of these people were unchurched, so I’m sure they weren’t left with the best impression.  I felt bad for the church who clearly had the best intentions in hosting this event.

It seems like a difficult balance – demanding excellence but allowing for grace.

I know that people like myself expect excellence, and churches have a high standard to maintain in today’s consumer driven culture.  However, I hope that people will see an opportunity for grace and realize that this church had the best intentions.  I hope that people will see a church that clearly has a gift for hospitality and a desire to connect with the community.  (And I’m sure this church learned a few valuable lessons along the way as well.)

When have your best intentions fallen short of excellence?  How have others shown you grace when you didn’t quite measure up to expectations?

Detours

Today, I have the privilege of presenting my wife as my guest blogger.  Leanne and I will be celebrating our 15th anniversary in less than two weeks.  We’ve been through a lot together over the years, and I look forward to the adventures that lie ahead.  Her thoughts below are extremely insightful while being very transparent.  Leanne doesn’t blog at the moment, but your comments and feedback may help spur her on to share more of her life and story.

This week I took a day off and went to the beach. This is something I used to do a couple of times a year but recently haven’t done for quite some time. So, it was a big deal to me. I filled up my tank with gas. I packed a picnic lunch, and figured out my directions. I put my tunes in the cd player and started on my trip. I didn’t even get on the turnpike when there was a detour – right at the start of my trip!

It reminded me of how this past year seemed like a detour in many ways.

1. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after being treated for a bipolar/postpartum psychosis diagnosis for 10 years. My doctor encouraged me to get a second opinion and when I did, the diagnosis was postpartum psychosis. So, I came off my medicine and gradually began having symptoms which led to a severe reaction. I have spent a lot of the year recovering but have found a greater understanding for people who deal with mental illness but also special needs in general, especially as they relate to children.
2. I decided to resign as my position of our church preschool director because I missed the children. I found myself spending most of my working hours behind a desk instead of with the children I love. Through tutoring and subbing this year, I have rediscovered a passion to be with students in the public school.
3. We had to put the trip of my dreams – Africa – on hold, but we have a greater resolve to make a difference in our local community as a family. We are excited for our service group to start-up again this fall. It was also a lesson of control. We quickly learned how much we are not in control of our lives.

In all these things, I am now able to look back and see God working for the good in all things. At the time, life seemed like a series of detours.  A friend asked me the other day if life made sense and for the first time in a while I was able to say that yes, right now it actually did. That doesn’t mean that life is without problems and everything is perfect but there’s faith, recovery, hope, and the support of family and friends.

What detours have you experienced in your life?  How have you seen God working good in your life through the ups and downs?

Guess Who I Am

This past week, I took a few days off from work to celebrate the start of our kids summer vacation and the end to a remarkable school year for both of them.  We took a couple of days to go camping at French Creek State Park.  It had been a few years since we have camped with just the four of us (plus the dog).  And we really had a great time – spending time together and making many new memories.

One of the memories that I will have of this trip was a game that Hannah and Isaac came up with around the campfire.  I’m guessing that they learned this game at one of their camping experiences last year.  I’m not sure of the exact name of the game, but I think it should be called “Guess Who I Am.”  In this game, the kids wrote down words that represented something on our camping trip.  These words word were then taped to our foreheads so we couldn’t see them.  Our goal was to ask questions in order to figure out what was on our paper.

It was hilarious to listen to the questions and answers as we went around the fire trying to guess who we were.  For the first round, I was a chair.  At one point, I became our newest dutch oven recipe – Hot Dog Pot Pie.  Needless to say, we had some great family time together.  My guess is that this will become a regular campfire game for our family.

Do you go camping?  What do your campfire activities look like?  What other things do you do to create family memories?

Time For Some Kick Ball!

Last night, we hosted an impromptu game of kick ball on our front lawn with our neighbors.  I was inclined to do some yard work when I came out of the house after dinner, but I couldn’t resist the chance to get into the game that was starting to form with the neighborhood kids.  It was fun, and it was so nice to hang out with the neighbors and to play with the kids.

It seems like we’re always running in a million different directions, and we miss out on the basic fun and the relationships with those who live close to us.  It would have been easy for me to let this opportunity pass and to continue on with my original agenda.  After kickball, the adults chatted on our front porch while the kids played another game.  It was great to share about the end of the school year and our plans for the summer.

It seems so simple, but these are the times to hold onto.  Our kids grow up so fast.  I want to make the most of the times like this.

What games did you play in your neighborhood as a kid?

Friendship Comes In All Ways

I have been blessed with some really great friendships.  I still keep in touch with some people from my first eight years living in Illinois.  And my many years in New Jersey brought me incredible friends through school and church.  I’m looking forward to meeting up with a few of these friends in a couple of weeks for our annual camping trip.  My time at college was also a great place for friendships.  As a matter of fact, I met my best friend and soul mate at this small school in western Pennsylvania.  Since I’ve been married, I’ve added to my list of great friendships through our church family, through our neighborhoods, through scouting, and through my job.

One place that has brought me a couple of interesting friendships is the internet.  I’m not promoting the careless release and exchange of information with complete strangers.  But I am intrigued by the value of discovering people on-line who can push you to greater heights, who can speak to your soul, who can relate to your interests, and who can give you something to think about.

I believe I have found this kind of friendship via the wonders of social media.  Over the past few months, I have been sharing blogs, tweets, status updates, and chat conversations with a new friend, Michael Shaw.  Michael blogs about his town, Skippack, PA, so he lives near me.  Based on our shared communication, I believe we share some common aspirations for living our life to the fullest and making a difference in this world.  Tomorrow night, we will have the opportunity to meet up face-to-face for what is sure to be an interesting interaction as we continue our conversation minus the technology that connected us in the first place.

I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Stay tuned.

Michael, I’ll see you tomorrow at the Cabana Bar in Skippack.

Sunny Side Up – Warriors for Tim

This past Thursday was a great day at my office.  Together with a few other co-workers, I helped to organize the 2nd Annual Sunny Side Up Breakfast Benefit to raise money and awareness for Warriors for Tim.  Warriors for Tim is an organization that was setup in honor of the son of a co-worker of mine.  Last year Tim lost his battle with H1N1.  Tim fought hard for 4 1/2 months down at CHOP in Philadelphia.  Warriors for Tim’s main goal is to raise funds to promote awareness about the urgent need for organ and tissue donors.  They are currently working towards a $100,000 fundraising goal that will fund a fitness center at the new Gift of Life Family House which is under construction in Philadelphia.

Our company banded together to make over 100 breakfast sandwiches and raise over $1,200 for this cause.  That means there will be a piece of fitness equipment that Siemens employees in Blue Bell are responsible for purchasing.  How exciting is that?

If you are not an organ donor, I would strongly recommend that you consider taking this step.  If you live in PA, NJ, or DE, you can easily sign up here.  And if you’re interested in donating to this worthwhile cause, you can donate on-line here.

I’m truly thankful for the amazing people I get to work with every day.  And I look forward to more adventures that we will have together in the future.

Here’s another picture to give you a feel for the day.

Phantastic Experience At Philabundance

Last night, I had the privilege of visiting PhilAbundance in South Philadelphia.  PhilAbundance is an organization that is trying to stamp out hunger in our region.  I went down there with my family, and we truly had an amazing time.  We spent about an hour and a half packing 520 boxes full of 30 pounds of food that will go to feed elderly people in our area for two weeks.  The boxes included a couple of boxes of cereal, several cans of food, pasta, juice, powdered milk, peanut butter, and a few other items.  For the first part of our time there, I worked with Hannah to put boxes of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes in each box.  For the second half, I helped Leanne put cans of potatoes in each box.  It was pretty amazing to see what could be done with a warehouse, a conveyor belt, several pallets of food, and a bunch of willing volunteers.

As we were packing the boxes, Leanne asked if we thought we could live for two weeks on the food that was being packed in one of these boxes.  This question really made us think about the people who will be receiving these boxes.

Our adventure was spurred on by a service group that we are part of.  We meet twice each month to fellowship and to show God’s love in a practical way.  Our first meeting of the month is usually a pot luck style dinner with a smaller activity – like making cards for soldiers or filling eggs for an upcoming Easter Egg Hunt.  Our second meeting is usually something that requires more action.  PhilAbundance was the perfect place to put action to our words this month.  I hope to go back again – possibly with a group from my office.  I can’t wait to see what our group is up to next month.  If you’re in the Philly (specifically Perkiomen Valley area) and you’re wondering how you can get involve, shoot me a comment.  I’d be glad to share more.

Serve on!

Thankful!

This afternoon and evening, I went to the wedding of a co-worker with my beautiful bride.  Here’s a picture of us before we left.  I’m so thankful for today and for Leanne.

The Eclectic Society

Last night, Leanne and I enjoyed the 3rd of 5 shows in this year’s Walnut Street Theater season.  We’ve already seen Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Oliver – both musicals.  WST is now running a new play called The Eclectic Society.

The play is set in the fraternity house of an east coast all male school in the fall of 1963 as the fraternity is going through the pledge process of accepting new freshmen into the house.  The school (and fraternity) is traditionally an all white school.  However, this was changed a couple of years ago when both the school and fraternity accepted its first black student who earns his place by excelling in sports.  The Eclectic Society which prides itself on the well rounded students that are represented in the house is split when the fraternity is faced with accepting its second black member who doesn’t carry the traditional traits of an Eclectic Society member – he’s from the ghettos of Cleveland, he isn’t paying his own way to the school, and he needs extra financial support to survive the day-to-day expenses of campus living.

Without giving away the play, The Eclectic Society raises questions related to racial harmony during this time in the history of our country, but it also forces one to ask if things have changed much since.  Sure, we have our first African-American president.  Sure, there is more diversity across many aspects of our American culture.  But you have to ask if everything has been done to carry out the dream voiced by Martin Luther King.  Do we look at people as equals?  Do we look at all people as being created in God’s image?  Do we rejoice and acknowledge how God made us all special with something to give?

These are some of the thoughts that were raised last night.

To finish out my review, the set and costumes and WST were fantastic as always.  The actors did a fabulous job.  I would not recommend this play to children due to language, a couple of fight scenes, subject, and one “mooning” scene.  But I would recommend the play to anyone else who wants to be challenged and entertained at the same time.

I’m looking forward to our next two shows as we finish out the season at WST – Fallen Angels and Fiddler on the Roof.  Should be a great finish.