Friday, August 8, 2014

Salvation garlands and festivals of sweetness

Yesterday afternoon, my wife, Mary and I parked my car in front of our church and walked three blocks or so to a magnificent down-home restaurant named The Camellia Grill. We dined on the best cheeseburger imaginable, with fresh bread, perfect juice meat, Swiss cheese, grilled mushrooms and onions and a decadent batch of chili-cheese fries. On the way back, a gentle breeze was blowing some incredibly large oak trees' limbs and the shade we walked through was wonderful.

It was the good end to a good day., in a fine week

They happen, you know? I dwell far too often on the negative. It is, as they say, a small character flaw on the order of say Bonnie and Clyde being, uh,  negatively motivated entrepreneurs.

I don't see dead people; nah, sometimes I see dead situations instead of the sweet life that exists all around me.

But if we take but a second, sometimes, to look around us, there is laughter and love all blossoming like new flowers in a bed of great soil.

Like grandchildren who see things a bit differently that us old codgers:

Five-year-old Emma to Kitty Purry, essentially her cat: "Kitty Purry, Kitty Purry, Kitty Purry, look at me Kitty Purry."
Long quiet seconds later, "He's not looking at me."

Like seven-year-old Gavin: "You know what I don't like, Mom. I don't wanna be smart because I don't like school, but I am smart."

Like Gavin and 10-year-old brother Gabe: 
Gabe: you see, Gavin! You always jump in front of me!
Gavin: No, I'm not! I'm just opening the door for you!
Gabe: You need to move and let me in first!
Gavin: UGGGGHHHH. You just don't appreciate me.

In just one day, we had a bit of money come to the church that was unexpected. I strongly expect it wasn't unexpected to God.
Yesterday we got a new printer that was much needed. The publishing possibilities are now endless.
Yesterday a college football bowl game offered items for our silent auction. We've secured speakers for that dinner/silent auction in December and for the day following, our Bishop Cynthia Harvey, has agreed to speak.

One week. One day. And though the day was sweet, other days were not so much. But the same God rules and reigns over both the rain and the sun.

I read rather recently (last night, in a book by Carey Nieuwhof called Leading Change Without Losing it, these profound words: "You ever read a local church history book? You know, the kind that celebrates a 50th or 100th anniversary? I didn’t think so. Why would you? They’re a bit dull. And a bit untrue.
"I mean they’re true in the sense that they describe who chaired the board of elders in 1946, that the extension to the kitchen happened in 1958, and that the school bus ministry reached 311 children in the summer of 1974.
"But congregational histories miss the fights. They don’t talk about how 18 people stormed out of the church for good because the kitchen expansion project was outrageously expensive and doctrinally unsound. Or how the church bus driver got fired in 1975 for playing The Rolling Stones on the stereo. Nor do they mention the night the youth group hijacked the school bus and went off-roading. Local church histories typically miss the good stuff.”

Yesterday a dear woman of the church sent a letter declining to work on that aforementioned dinner and subsequent weekend. The weekend, along with being a fund-raising for a church in desperate need of funds to help repair the dear lady, is to celebrate the 100th-year anniversary of the church. She quit the team that I was establishing to work on that before I ever called anyone to be on the team, at least partially I believe because she isn't a great fan of all the changes that are going on at the church or at least because of the speed in which some of those changes are being made.

And it mattered not to me because of the week of praise I'm having.

Here's the point: I need most especially to remember that into the sweetness comes the sour, into the great comes the poor, into the good comes the bad. It just happens. To all. But when you stop to at the least look at the roses you're constantly told you must smell, things are much, much better. There is always something (ALWAYS!) something to celebrate, to praise God for.

Psalm 149:4 in the Message reads like this: Hallelujah! Sing to God a brand-new song, praise him in the company of all who love him. Let all Israel celebrate their Sovereign Creator, Zion's children exult in their King. Let them praise his name in dance; strike up the band and make music! and why? Because God delights in his people., festoons plain folk with salvation garlands!"

Isn't that a great thing to want to emulate? He festoons plain folk, of which I am the plainest, with salvation garlands.

What a great day in a great week in a great life -- all God given.

1 comment:

Kevin H said...

That made me smile!