Dispossessed

Holy Thumbs, Lying Liars, and an Ugly Brick Maker

Saturday, August 18, 2007 10:04 AM

So it's VBS day at our church and I am FRUSTRATED!!! I have a holy, err I mean Wholly, no I guess Hole-ey thumb that has caused me to question claims made by our church and to settle into a feeling of frustration. Keep reading for the explanation.

I am a bit of Maverick, and do not allow myself to be helped as much as I could. At the same time I KNOW my limitations, and will rarely take on a task I am unqualified for. However! today I was forced into a task that I am GROSSLY deficient at and now I have a giant gash on my thumb. You see I need ONE and only one male, (the more masculine type not a sissy artsy fartsy type like me) to ask if there was anything he could do to help prepare for VBS. How many of these males did I find. ZERO!!! Not one out of the 60 men who worship at our church asked if I needed any assistance preparing for VBS. This left me to build the "brick maker" for our hands-on room. So after buying the wood, cutting the wood, and screwing a screw into my thumb, rather than the wood (yes I am REALLY that uncoordinated) I finshed the construction of the UGLIEST BRICK MAKE EVER!!!!

This leads me to the lies. We sent out a mailer to our community that claimed, "We are a church that values children." This is a lie. If we valued children, our men would desire to assist with VBS. If we were a church that valued children, we would not have needed to BEG for VBS volunteers. If we were a church that valued children I would not have needed to bring in a friend from another church to supplement our staff. I could go on about other frustrations, but that is just "digging up bones".

I will never understand my gender. I will never understand what makes dads desperately rework their schedules to be involved in their children's athletic lives, yet be too busy to serve in the children's ministry at church. I will never understand what makes a men able to find time to watch sports center and go golfing with their friends, yet have no time to spend time as key developers of the children's spiritual future. THIS IS A SPIRITUAL SICKNESS!!! It in an infection in the minds of my gender. I just don't get it!

I LONG for the men of our church, and for the men of churches everywhere to stop lying and TRULY begin to have a passion for valuing the spiritual development of children. I believe we can and SHOULD do better!

Jesus Loves The Little Children (Rebecca St James Album Version)

Labels: Cardinal Drive, Children's Ministry, Church, VBS

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Cleaning Up Facebook Quotes

Monday, August 13, 2007 11:59 AM

I went to add a small portion of the Diognetus text to my Facebook profile and realized my quotes section had gotten WAY to long. Not wanting to lose these quotes, because I still think they are each great. I decided to compile them into a little post here. Please feel free to ignore this post. It is for my future reference.

Anglican Church of Canada:

For food in a world where many walk in hunger
For friends in a world where many walk alone
For faith in a world where many walk in fear
We give you thanks, O Lord. Amen.

Philo of Alexandria:

Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

Phillip Yancey:

The people of God are not merely to mark time waiting for God to set all that is wrong right. Rather they are to model the new heaven and the new earth, and by doing so awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass

F. Scott Fitzgerald:

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold
two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.

Saint Augustine:

The church is a whore, but she's my mother.

Labels: Church, Quotes

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UGH - Trying To Be Nice is Hard

Wednesday, April 18, 2007 8:49 AM

(This is NOT a happy post - It does not have a happy ending - It is the simple truth of how I feel - If you want a well formed message with a great spiritual application - this is not the post for you - this is a RAW flush of feelings! Please understand that if you choose to read it)

Knowing in your head to love your enemies is a lot easier than actually doing it.

I was doing so well and quite proud of myself last week when I explained a solution to a problem faced by a person I detest at my church. I thought I was being kind and then once explaining the solution to the problem the person would be out of my hair, and I could pat myself on the back for showing "love" to my enemy.

That was until today, when the person manifested the real reason why I consider them my enemy. This person emailed me needing a FIRM DATE as to when the problem would be solved at the church. I mean it's not like I don't have 3 small children at home. I didn't volunteer to FIX the problem, I just volunteered HOW to fix the problem. Now, judging from past experiences, I will get emails and phone calls CONSTANTLY from this person.

Last year I was going to find a new church to worship and serve with SOLELY because of this person. Though I decided against that, I did decide that I could not serve in ANY ministry this person was involved with. Things have been great for the 9 months since I avoided this person. However the FIRST conversation I have had in 9 months and it is back to the same CRAP as before.

HOW?
HOW?
HOW?
HOW, Do I Love My Enemy?

I want to be the right person and do the right thing. I want to embrace the challenge of Christ call! Yet, I don't have time to spend the 2 hours it will take to fix this issue. It is times like this I think I SHOULD have left this church, since I can not deal with this person and I KNOW it is my problem . I KNOW it is my inability to LOVE like CHRIST loves!

Well, I am off to torment myself on whether or not to even GO to church tonight!

Labels: Church, Love

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dispossessed