Happy Thanksgiving

I love this day when our country that is mired in greed and discontent actually takes a day to think of all the things for which we are thankful.
I challenge each person to let this attitude of thankfulness continue in the following days when stores and consumers quickly shift back to attitudes of discontent.

Dogs

One of the ways my wife communicates her feelings about having a dog is with the hyperbolic statement, "I don't like his stinky hairy butt on my carpet". Now we know this problem can be solved.

When Missional Church Works

We are a part of a local church community that is focused on living with an "outward" focus rather than an inward focus that is only concerned with those who join us during our weekly gatherings. This is an exciting thing because it seems to resemble the early gatherings described in the Bible and post- Biblical writings but it is a difficult thing to measure in this culture. I have said before that I am consistently tempted to measure the effectiveness of this church by the number of people in a gathering but then I have to stop and consider greater indicators.

1. The fact is that we have a growing number of people who do-not-yet believe or who are struggling with faith who are engaging with Christians in our community groups. These friends of ours are asking real questions and are sharing pieces of their lives with us as we journey together. My prayer is that through this they will see Jesus lived out through us and take the next step towards faith. This is what we wanted when we began this church community so how can we not be excited?

2. Through a few faithful members of our gathering, we have a food box ministry that is growing each month and is already at a point where it has to be the work of God to provide enough food each month. It is a joy to know that a small gathering of people who want to help others can actually make a practical difference in the lives of so many families each month.

3. This Holiday Season we are adopting some families in need from a local neighborhood and extending this "adoption" to the entire year. In addition to this, our gathering is planning to spend less on ourselves and spend what we save to build a water well in an area of Northern Africa. In addition to these things, we are continuing our partnership with persecuted Christians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

4. Without any prompting, many of the people in this gathering are finding ways to spend time with neighbors and friends in order to bless them and give them a glimpse of Jesus in real life.

We believe all of these things are commanded to us from God and are all things that we are blessed to be a part of. I want to thank the people of Soma Church of Orange County for jumping in a doing all they can to life unselfishly and passionately for Jesus.

Time Travel

Life is filled with moments of great joy and great pain. Some would even argue that without one we really don't have the other. Without hate how could we know love, without dark how would we recognize light, and without pain how could we feel joy?
As for me I think I would skip the pain in life if I could but this, of course, doesn't work.

This past weekend my boys and I had the unfortunate experience of watching our idiot dog run across a busy street and then run back towards us. Just before he made it back he was struck by a car and died 2 hours later. As of 930 AM on Saturday I had three happy boys who just rode bikes with me to a donut shop and one very happy dog who ran with us the entire way. By noon, the mood was somber, our dog was gone, and the vet bill was piling up by the second. To add insult to injury the lady who hit him tracked us down two days later saying her car was damaged and she is hassling us and our insurance agent multiple times per day.

I really don't need much right now, but if any of you know someone who has a time machine I would like to borrow it. I will hold Miki's leash (that was attached to his collar as he dashed across the street) and then I will give the machine back. That's all.