 |
|
| |
I listen to the radio quite a bit while I am out making my sales calls. My favorite station is National Public Radio (NPR). Today I was listening to The Bob Edwards Show and was touched by a story that his guest, Louis Ferrante, shared. Louis Ferrante is the author of the book “Unlocked; A Journey From Prison to Proust”. Ferrante had been a member of a New York Mafia family and spend nine years in various state and federal prisons for his Mafia related crimes. In prison he became a voracious reader of books on all types of subjects, including history and philosophy. After studying world religions he converted to Orthodox Judaism. His story was about an encounter with another prisoner and how that prisoner’s life had been changed by a simple act of kindness. Ferrante and this prisoner were chained to each other during a transfer to a state prison in upstate NY. Apparently the trip lasted several days and the men were not allowed to bath until they arrived at the final destination causing them to be quite “ripe” upon arrival. Since Ferrante had been transferred many times, he always made it a point to have his commissary account transferred to the new prison so that he could immediately purchase basic toiletry items. The other prisoner had not planned ahead and arrived at the new prison with nothing. Ferrante offered to purchase this prisoner toiletry items and the prisoner seemed surprised that anyone would offer anything to him. The prisoner declined, but Ferrante went ahead and ordered extra supplies as well as packages of instant noodles which he gave to the other prisoner anyway. At a later date the prisoner came into Ferrante’s cell as he was studying Torah. The man seemed surprised that Ferrante was Jewish since he was obviously from an Italian family. Ferrante said that the man became very uncomfortable and left the cell in a rush. Ferrante was confused by this behavior but brushed it off. Ferrante later saw the prisoner in the yard with several young men and realized that the man was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood and was initiating the young men into the Brotherhood. It was then that Ferrante understood the man's discomfort during the earlier encounter. Some time later the prisoner came to his cell with several cassette tapes which had been given to him. He had noticed that Ferrante had a cassette player and wanted to give the tapes to him as a gift. In the prison economy cassette tapes are of great value since they could be sold to other inmates. Ferrante declined the offer, but the man insisted that he take the tapes. It was some time later that the prisoner approached Ferrante and was extremely excited. He told Ferrante that he felt different and Ferrante did not really understand. The man then raised his shirt and showed Ferrante a tattoo on his chest of a swastika. The man explained that he was going to have the tattoo redone to remove the image of the swastika. He explained that no one had ever given him anything in life until he had met Ferrante. He shared that he had changed his attitudes and wanted to change his life since the first person to show him kindness was a Jew. We never really know how our actions affect people, do we? The smallest of gestures can make the biggest difference in someone’s life. Likewise, one unkind word can crush a person’s spirit. Our world tells us that big and flashy is what gets the attention, but really the small things are what really matter. One simple act of kindness and respect could change the way a person thinks about an in entire race. Who are your actions going to affect today? Will they break someone’s heart or will they change it? What a wonderful world this would be if we all practiced small acts of kindness everyday.
|
| |
| |
Oh, my what a blast! If you missed the confirmation retreat, you missed an amazing weekend!
Several things that were standouts;
Stephanie Gunter in the luggage rack of the bus
Nick and David's hairdos
Not one kid brought good candy! But Debbie came through
Sunrise Service with Pete Brewer
The amazing youth and young adults that helped out. Jack, Robyn, Shannon, Weed, Nathan, Pete, and Forrest you rock!
Falling down while dodging a car. The break is small and I will be up and running around soon
The story of Falling Rock
Somores
Bubbles in my bed (what was that all about Melissa, Megan W, and Malorie??)
Midnight giggles
The Zip Line
Kevin ringing the dinner bell
Connor and Cameron Thomas leading the scavenger hunt groups (do I see future layspeakers here?)
Hair dye and cool tattoos
Learning how to find our true north
Adam and Jack telling jokes on the bus
Faith Partners you ROCK!!
The energy and love that this faith community has for these amazing young people
Let's love 'em, encourage 'em, and keep them active...this is a great group!
|
| |
| |
Tonight was the last confirmation class and I will have to admit I am going to miss it.
In the last several years I have felt that my talents were not needed in many of the ministries I had participated in around the church. I slowly dropped out of teaching Sunday School, helping at UMYF, UMW, ushering, reading scripture, layspeaking. I really had a lot on my plate getting Renee off to college and an ongoing health issue. It was okay that I was dropping out. Time for someone else to have an opportunity to pitch in.
Well, with Renee gone I began to feel pretty lonely. I started feeling better after determining what was going on with my health and I started thinking it was time to go back in and start doing things again. At the last minute something told me to help out with confirmation and I decided to teach.
I have to admit, it really was a joy. I really had a lot of fun sharing my faith with 6th graders. We talked about the seasons of the church, we talked about sin, we learned about grace. We laughed, we goofed off and next weekend we are going on a retreat together.
You know this experience has taught me something very important. As a faith community we all have a responsibility to love and nuture our children. They are so precious and they are so hungry for us to lead them on the journey. Each of these wonderful 6th graders is a great gift to our church. And we should nuture and guide so that they grow in their faith.
Several of the youth came in to talk to the confirmands tonight. One of the youth, Pete, stood up and talked about how he had become active in youth. Even though Pete did not remember, I taught him 4th grade Sunday School. I watched him grow up in this church and I was so proud of the wonderful young man that was standing before the confirmands tonight. As proud of him as I am of my own daughter.
One of my favorite Sundays in our church is the Sunday that we recognize our graduating Seniors. I love to see those young people stand up before the congregation and tell us their plans for the future. As a faith community we have watched and hopefully helped these young people to grow up. We have been a part of them and will hopefully be part of their future also. I am always so proud and get a little teary-eyed on this Sunday.
I sometimes see these kids around town after they have gone off to school or I get e-mails from them from school. They usually give me a big hug and share with me what they are up to. I am so proud that I may have touched their lives in some small way. I know that they have touched mine is a much bigger way.
This group of confirmations is a very special group. I hope and pray that they stay together throughout high school and that many of them will continue to participate in our church community. We are so lucky to have them and need to all nurture them and encourage them. As a faith community, we each need to appreciate the youth among us. They are our future and what a bright future they are!
|
| |
| |
I was reading an article today in one of the many newsletters that my company publishes to keep us informed and came across an article of interest. The article was about an employee in Chicago that had won $100,000 on a show called Power of 10. I'm not a fan of reality shows and have never seen this show so I went to the CBS website to check it out. The premise of the show is that contestants must correctly guess the results of surveys that are given. One of the questions that my fellow employee had answered correctly made me think. The question was, "What percentage of people say they have read the Bible from cover to cover?".
I got to thinking about all the material we read every day, What percentage of people do you think read the newspaper every day? What percentage of people read People or Entertainment Magazine? I've heard readership goes up if Britney Spears is on the cover! What percentage of people read blogs or news on the Internet everyday? Do you know the answer to these questions? I would think that the percentages would be pretty high, wouldn't you?
I'll have to admit, I did not even own a Bible until about 15 years ago. I was raised in a Catholic family and went to Catholic school in the 60's and 70's. We never read the Bible, we were told by priest and nuns what it said. I assumed they had read it. I knew some of the feel good stories, Noah and the ark, Cain & Abel, Adam and Eve, David and Goliath. These were told to me more like fairy tales, not with any deep understanding.
We had a family Bible at home. It was black leather with gold edged pages. My father would crack it's spine at Christmas and read Luke's account of the birth of Jesus, then close it up until the next year. It had some really cool color pictures in the middle that I would look at if I was really bored, but can't say I ever read it.
I taught 4th grade Sunday School for a couple of years and I read the Bible passages that corresponded with the lesson. What was nice about that is that the Teacher's Guide told me what the passage meant in relation to the lesson for the week. Some of the Youth have told me that they don't read the Bible because it is hard to understand. I understood how they felt. I tried to read the Bible once from cover to cover. I think I got as far as Exodus.
It wasn't until I took my first Disciple class that I read the Bible from cover to cover. In Disciple 1 you read about 90-95% of the Bible (I swear it was 120%!). By reading and studying this book in a small group, I finally understood that the Bible is not just a book of nice stories. It is full of sex and sin, much better than any prime-time programming or trashy romance novel. The Bible is a look at mankind and it illustrates that we have not really evolved much through the ages. We all are flawed, we all fall short, we all want to take control. The Bible also illutrates that no matter what, God still loves us and forgives us. The Bible is a love story, God's love story to us. It is a book of hope and renewal and no matter how many times I read it, it is fresh and new every time.
In our church we give our 3rd graders a Bible. I love this tradition. I remember when Renee' got her Bible she read it constantly. She took it to school and read it when she was done with her work. She read it before she went to bed. I remember that a teacher told her that she was not allowed to read it at school and she came home confused. Why was she not allowed to read what she wanted? She loved that book so much!
You too can fall in love with this great book. If you have not taken Disciple, I would totally encourage you to sign up ASAP! It is such a rich experience to study God's word with a small group. Disciple seems long, but committing to a class is well worth the time. IThere are many other Bible studies going on in our church and I would encourage you to find one to join that fits your schedule.
The survey said that less than 30% of people surveyed had read the Bible from cover to cover. I think it is time to bring that percentage up! It all starts with you!!
|
| |
| |
Well, if you have not noticed it is Christmas time again. Actually the Christmas season has been in the stores since early October this year. You can probably ask any small child what is their favorite holiday and I think you will find that Christmas and Halloween are probably at the top of the list. I’ll tell you a little secret about me, when I was a child I really did not like Christmas and as I get older I dislike this season more and more. Every year I ask myself the same question, “Why do I dislike this holiday so much?” and every year I struggle with the answer. Sometimes I think I might have that light effective disorder. You know where lack of sunlight causes people to become more depressed. It seems that soon after daylight savings time goes into effect in late October I start to get more cranky than usual. That also is about the time (in the past) that the Christmas decorations started appearing in the stores. Is there a correlation? I grew up in an alcoholic family and Christmas was always a good excuse to get drunk. In my father’s family, which was where all the alcoholics were, it was also a good time to get together and have a rip roaring fight about something that happened years ago, that was totally insignificant to life as a whole. Thus Christmas usually ended up with everyone yelling at each other and on many occasions with someone in the emergency room. I read a book one time about adult children of alcoholics and one of the things that are common in adult children is a dislike of holidays. Could that be the issue? I work in an industry where about 60% of our business is sold and processed in the last quarter of the year. In the months of November and December are so busy in my office that we all wish that cloning were legal so we could all be in 4 places at one time. Could that be it, I’m just too tired at the end of my hectic days to enjoy the season? We are just bombarded this time of year with all sorts of things. There are news reports about the hottest gifts of the year. We have to go out to the mall and shop for that perfect gift as we fight the crowds and fight for parking spaces and feel the pinch in our budgets. We have to decorate the house with seasonal decorations and but up the tree. This causes great disruption in my house since I have to move the furniture and my other knick knacks around to make room for all the decorations. And we all know I do not like change. My mailbox usually is filled this time of year with more junk mail than usual. I get tons of catalogs trying to entice me to buy, buy. I get bombarded with solicitations from charities wanting me to give, give, give, because you know it "tis the season". There are parties and seasonal shows and special programs being held every week at church and to get in the spirit of the season you need to attend all of them. We are told that people are nicer, more generous, more forgiving this time of year. It’s just go, go, go, rush, rush, rush, and I don’t see how people can be so nice with all this stress, but they tell me they are. It all seems kind of phony. No wonder I don’t like Christmas! Then comes January and the rush is over and we go back to the way it was before October all feeling great that we were in a season where we pretended to be nicer, gentler, more generous people. That is what the holidays are supposed to be about anyway, right? We are supposed to be generous, loving, peaceful and considerate during the holidays, right? When I was a kid we used to play a game called, “If I were the king of the world…” The premise was that if you were king of the world you could make anything happen you wanted. Ice cream would be free and available anytime of the day. Kids could stay up as late as they wanted and watch as much TV as they wanted. Christmas could be every day of the year. In the reading today, Isaiah is speaking of the real King of the World, Jesus. He will come from the stump of Jesse. Now when I think of a stump, I think of something that is small and insignificant in comparison to the great tree that once stood there. Now we know that Jesse was the father of David, the greatest king in Jewish history. Why not say he was coming from greatness? He will be filled with a Spirit that gives direction, builds strength, instills knowledge and fears God. I like the next part of this passage. He won’t judge by appearances, will only judge by what is right and render decisions that are just for the earth’s poor. Under his rule everything will be in perfect balance, the world will be in peace, there will be no pain, no suffering. There is a story that I have heard about an evening that was suppose to have occurred one Christmas Eve during World War I. The story is set in the foxholes on a battle field in France. The story goes that on that Christmas Eve, the soldiers from both sides came out of their foxholes and met in the space between the foxholes to share food and fellowship for Christmas. For one night the war was halted and there was peace. Now this story has always bothered me and I always question if it is a true story. How could you have peace and harmony for one night and then go back the next day and continue the war? Why not have that peace and harmony everyday? Why not let the King of the World rule our lives so that we can emulate him and build righteousness and faithfulness in the world? You may say, "I’m just one person I cannot change the world". Isaiah tells us that the insignificant stump of Jesse will. Then why can’t you? I think I have figured out why I don’t like the Christmas season. It is a season and seasons are short lived, not life long. The world tells us that we should be happy and joyous for the time period between October and January. We are told that the world is at peace and we are all in harmony and in a giving mood for this short period of time. But come January we all go back to the way it was. I want to have the Christmas feeling all year, don’t you? I want to feel that the world is at peace everyday. In order to achieve that peace, it starts with insignificant me and you. We have to carry that life giving spirit with us every season and every day of the year. So I challenge you, as I will be challenging myself, to work toward peace, harmony, wisdom and understanding every day of the year.
|
| |
|
