friday night fun with bruce and niki

see Cheryl's blog for more...








I'm watching you....

separated at birth

Double Double

2 Ki 2:7-10 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?" "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied. "You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours — otherwise not."

Who do you know that would answer the question of Elijah the way Elisha did? Who do you know that would ask the question Elijah did of Elisha?

Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken from you? Tell me what is in your heart? Tell me what is the deepest passion of your soul? Tell me what you desire above all else in this world? Tell me what you see in me that you desire the most?

What if you asked this question of someone you know? What if you asked a close companion what they would want from you before you died? What is the most significant thing you possess that others would want a double portion of if given the chance?

I want a double portion of your spirit. I want what I can't have. I want the most significant thing about you Elijah- your spirit. After following you around for some time now I desire what you have so much and I want it in double portions! I want the boldness you have for what is right, I want the wisdom you possess to pass along to others, I want the devotion you have for the Lord and his work. I want the prayer life you exhibit. I want the miracle working power. I want the prophetic mantle. I want the leadership.

Only Only
I I
want want
twice twice
as as
much much
as as
you you
have! have!

I want to ask for the hard thing. The thing that appears really "out there" to most others. I don't want to settle for the status quo. I want to ask for the things that look really difficult and a lot desperate. There is no guts nor glory is playing it safe all the time.

Give me a double portion of the spirit of Elisha!
Amen!

Expectations

How high are your expectations? I have been wondering about a quote that I read some time ago. The quote went something like this... "Christians in general are far to easily pleased." The context had to do with our deep down core value of faith. Faith in what we believe God can accomplish through us or even just what God can do period! It has to do with setting our expectations of what God wants to do too low; With being more and more satisfied with the status quo: With being less and less concerned with risking for God or exchanging that heart of passionate calculated risk for passion for an increasingly comfortable way of living. It has to do with expecting Christ to change peoples hearts and lives when we pray for them; Rather than hoping our prayers get answered so we don't look to ridiculous in front of others. It has to do with being desperate and recognizing our pathetic nature and how we are to be pitied above the other creatures of God's creation.
I sometimes wonder at the western idea of what commitment means. It is a word that gets thrown around a fair bit in church circles. But what does it refer to? It may mean greater attendance at church functions more than it means stepping out and taking a risk of faith by being vulnerable and honest with fears and heaven forbid some honest tears. It may mean supporting financially or spending more time in prayer and word study to some. But what if all it means is that instead of endlessly studying or endlessly praying or endlessly attending meetings we actually step out and minister God's powerful love to lost, lonely and mostly unaccepted people in our communities?

I love this story. It sets my heart and imagination aflame. I like it but I hate it at the same time. I like it because it shows there could be so much more that I expect. I hate it because I know how many arrows I would have stuck in the ground? I will let the story do the rest so here it is.
"2 Kings 13:14-20 Elisha came down sick. It was the sickness of which he would soon die. Jehoash king of Israel paid him a visit. When he saw him he wept openly, crying, "My father, my father! Chariot and horsemen of Israel!" Elisha told him, "Go and get a bow and some arrows." The king brought him the bow and arrows. Then he told the king, "Put your hand on the bow." He put his hand on the bow. Then Elisha put his hand over the hand of the king. Elisha said, "Now open the east window." He opened it. Then he said, "Shoot!" And he shot. "The arrow of GOD's salvation!" exclaimed Elisha. "The arrow of deliverance from Aram! You will do battle against Aram until there's nothing left of it." "Now pick up the other arrows," said Elisha. He picked them up. Then he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground." The king struck the ground three times and then quit. The Holy Man became angry with him: "Why didn't you hit the ground five or six times? Then you would beat Aram until he was finished. As it is, you'll defeat him three times only." Then Elisha died and they buried him.

The holy man became angry that the king had such low expectations of the "arrow of God's Salvation".

How many arrows would you have struck the ground with?

Discouragement

What do you do when you are discouraged? I have now been asked that question 3 times over the past 36 hours. All of the comments were made in regard to our little church. Over the past 4 years we have been in a steady decline in attendance, participation, ownership, commitment and finances. We have a pretty solid core of about 40-50 people who rarely miss out on a Sunday morning gathering. We have about that many or maybe a bit more involved in our Life Groups on a faithful basis and we have a life group meeting every day of the week except Sunday's. We have new faith, we have pre faith, and we have immature, maturing and mature christians and ages ranging from 0 - 70 within the fellowship. However, over the past 3 months several long time attendees and others have left to find "greener pastures". Many have said that they love our church, they don't want to leave our church but they feel they must leave and often for "family" type reasons (at least that's the one they admit too). "Our kids need more"; "our youth need more"; "our children attend this other fellowship"; "some of our needs are not being met"; are the vast majority of statements used to describe why people are leaving. In most respects it is basically consumer driven not Holy Spirit driven. Also, the ghost of past success has never really left us alone. We used to have 230 on a regular basis to church; 60-70 children in Sunday School; 40-50 young people in our youth ministry. We used to have so much extra money that we wondered what God wanted us to do with it and now we can barely pay my salary. And so, discouragement seems to be the dominant conversation people are having over coffee with others. This tends to breed more and more discouragement and on and on it goes.
I have a pattern that I follow whenever I start to get that discouraged feeling. Mostly it starts with talking out-loud to myself and that usually while I am driving (or mowing the lawn). This is usually where I work out some of the angrier parts of my feeling of discouragement. Then after I do that I start to lay out the scenario as I perceive it in my mind to God. Then I begin asking the Lord for his perspective on the situation. Then I begin to praise him and seek the Lord to renew my mind, heart and emotions and bring me a refreshing sense of his power and Joy (strength).
I started this process many years ago while I was still in high school after I heard the story of David found in 1 Sam. 30:1-6. The families of David and his merry men had been taken captive by the Amelikites. They had attacked the city, burned it to the ground and took everyone in it captive while David and his men were off raiding the Philistines. When they got back you can imagine the horror, anger and discouragement of the men as they find that all that mattered most to them was gone. This slowly turned to blame and then quickly to rage against David as their leader. Then in verse 6 it records what David did, it says; 1 Sa 30:6 David was now in serious trouble because his men were very bitter about losing their wives and children, and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
Since hearing this I have made it a growing practice/discipline not to try and find strength in anything else except in the Lord. It seems clear to me that there really is no where else to turn to rid myself of discouragement. And, it is something that I can do several times a day if the need warrants it.
Maybe if you find yourself discouraged today this scripture can help you. The Word of God can help you find strength and courage to face whatever it is you are facing in the strength that the Lord wants to provide for you. What else is there to do with the nasty little beast called discouragement?

Don’t Forget to Remember!

I am notoriously forgetful but only when it comes to remembering things. In fact I can pretty much forget just about anything and not even feel guilty because I don'’t remember what it was I forgot! That is until someone comes along and awakens my guilt by reminding me of what it was I was supposed to have remembered. Confused yet? Me to!
It seems to me that when it comes to forgetting it can be either good or bad depending on what is supposed to be recalled to memory. It may surprise you that it can be a good thing that some things are forgotten. When horrible events happen the trauma associated with them can push those things to the back of our memories. We are designed this way as a defense mechanism and it is important that this happens to enable us to go on functioning until a more opportune time comes to deal with the trauma. Sometimes these hidden memories can lay dormant for a long time until that person is confronted with them by some event or situation that triggers the recall.
A bad thing to forget is your spouse'’s birthday or your wedding anniversary or some other important date like that. It is also a bad thing when forgetting leads to being seen as unreliable or irresponsible. This kind of forgetfulness basically devalues other people, their time and their efforts. It is very frustrating to those around us and can even sour some relationships if things don'’t improve over time.
History repeats itself because of forgetfulness. One reason that wisdom and discernment are seemingly on short supply in our day is largely do to the fact that the valuable lessons of history are forgotten. Someone once told me "“A mistake is not a mistake if you learn from it!" I think that means that if the mistake is forgotten then the lessons to be learned are also gone. Sadly we are then doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again until we remember the agony associated with it and make the necessary changes.
Tomorrow we will be reminded of the sacrifices of those who fought in wars to preserve the freedoms that most of simply take for granted. Remembrance Day is an important day for all Canadians because it gives us some practice at remembering the sacrifices of others on our behalf. Thank you to all our veterans for what they had to endure and still do endure that we might enjoy the freedoms we have.
Remembering is also a vital part of the practice of our faith in God. Often we meet and remember the great sacrifice Jesus Christ God'’s only Son made when he died for the sins of the world. We also have a designated time on the calendar to help us to remember this event called Good Friday and also Easter Sunday. Often God warns us in the bible not to forget. Instead we are to memorize, to recall, and to bring to mind the teachings of God and obey them in order to bring ourselves into lives filled with great joy.
So I guess I am saying don'’t forget to remember the sacrifices of others on our behalf. From the sacrifice of the men and women of war to the sacrifice of the Son of God on our behalf, we must never forget by intensionally seeking to remember.

Gumption

I liked this so I thought I would just pass it along to the rest of you...

Reading a Chuck Swindoll devotional recently pointed me to Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and a reminder of a little-heard word these days, gumption. Pirsig writes:

"I like the word gumption because it's so homely and so forlorn and so out of style it looks as if it needs a friend and isn't likely to reject anyone who comes along. It's an old Scottish word, once used a lot by pioneers, but . . . seems to have all but dropped out of use.

"A person filled with gumption doesn't sit around, dissipating and stewing about things. He's at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see what's up the track and meeting it when it comes."

As Pirsig applies gumption to life, he does so behind the word picture of repairing a motorcycle:

"If you're going to repair a motorcycle, an adequate supply of gumption is the first and most important tool. If you haven't got that you might as well gather up all the other tools and put them away, because they won't do you any good.

"Gumption is the psychic gasoline that keeps the whole thing going. If you haven't got it, there is no way the motorcycle can possibly be fixed. But if you have got it and know how to keep it, there's absolutely no way in the whole world that motorcycle can keep from getting fixed. It's bound to happen. Therefore the thing that must be monitored at all times and preserved before anything else is gumption."

Sanctified gumption. It's not only handy when you're repairing a motorcycle; it's downright essential to be an effective preacher and church leader( or just a plain ordinary person).

Michael Duduit

Our New Friend

Well this will be my 5th try at getting this to blog! I have had some trouble today with my computer as it keeps crashing on me and I have lost 3 entire blogs just before I posted them and one that was lost a couple of sentences into it. I was trying to write about my dear little Paige. She is most definitely a Nichol to the max. She has inherited the "spill-gene" from her father. She has the dubious distinction of being able to spill pretty much anything, anytime on her clean clothes. It always seems to happen when it matters most to be at least half ways decent looking. This weekend we hauled off to Kamloops for a rockets/blazers hockey game with D & P's camp friends. We had a great time (see the pics on Cheryl’s blog) We had not got through Kelowna when I heard from the back seat, "Dad, we need to go to Wal-Mart and buy a Tide Pen!" I had no idea what she was talking about but it turned out that her friend Janelle had given her some of her chocolate bar and she had chocolate crumbs all over her white rockets baseball shirt. It was quite a mess. So we headed into the bowels of Wal-Mart, she found a Tide Pen on sale; she applied the pen to the various areas of concern and WALAH! It was clean as a whistle! All the chocolate stains and the oil stains that surround the chocolate stains completely GONE! I wonder where the stain went one our friends said when I told them this story. Good question?
So, Paige and I now have a new best friend. The Tide Pen to the rescue! You really should try it!

Is it OK?

Recently I was meditating on some scripture and an argument of Jesus caught my attention once again. It has been a while as far as I can remember the last time I was "handled" by this passage of scripture. It is one of those passages that seem to present a conundrum. We all know that obeying the laws of God are vitally essential to life and the pursuit of being wholly holy. They are the bedrock and foundation of a growing relationship with God and of course deeply vital to managing and growing relationships with each other. The only thing the law falls short of is providing salvation but it does manage to point us to Christ who is our salvation.

Anyway, the passage is found in Lk 6:1-5 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. 2 Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." 5 Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

So what exactly is Jesus saying here? Each week twelve consecrated loaves of bread, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, would be placed on a table in the house of God, the tabernacle. This bread was called the bread of the Presence (or showbread). At the end of the week, the bread would be replaced with fresh loaves, and the old loaves would be eaten by the priests. On one occasion, the high priest gave this consecrated bread to David and his men to eat as they were fleeing from Saul (and lied about this fact). The priest understood that their need was more important than ceremonial regulations. Although the priests were the only ones allowed to eat this bread, God did not punish David because his need for food was more important than the priestly regulations that he had clearly laid out. Instead, he was emphasizing discernment and compassion in enforcing the laws, something the self-righteous Pharisees did not comprehend. People's needs are more important.

So, does this mean that this story, although stemming from the commandment concerning the Sabbath, simply gives us the freedom to interpret the laws of God, (ceremonial, civil, temple, priestly and moral) with careful discernment that in some ways may mean that we end up disobeying them?

For example....

Is it ok to lie if it is going to save a life?

Is it ok to steal if one is starving?

Is it ok to kill if one's family is being threatened?

Is it ok to remarry if one is dying from loneliness?

Is it ok to disrespect your parents if they are cruel and abusive?

Is it ok to skip a "Sabbath" rest if your livelihood depends on it?

I love it when these types of passages create some good old fashioned thought.
Hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

GRUSOME GROSSNESS!

 

Couldn't resist a little HORRABLE HUMOUR!

 

Who Teaches You?

While studying for a message recently I ran across something that made me stop and think for a while. Actually, I am still pondering it and seeking to let it mold my thinking about how I live life and how I see our fellowship encouraging others to live life. I always enjoy it when I come to these moments in my life; I guess you could say they are "God moments” for me. They can draw attention to something brand new or be the kind of thing that you may already know deep down in your soul somewhere but haven’t really given it words, or concepts to bring substance to it. Sometimes it is directed towards a current situation or time of need and at other times it prepares us for what may be coming down the road, like finding a piece of the puzzle that enables you to put more of that puzzle together. I guess that's why it is called a living faith and not some dead philosophy or religious teaching but rather a living word.
This idea came from a book that I have enjoyed so much I have read it 3 times. It is a book that speaks my language, it shapes my thinking and it soothes my soul. The book is called "Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard. I find my self going back to it often in sermon prep or just to pick up a teachable principle for my leadership or the fellowship in general. I have read a few books like this over the course of my life but right now it is the one with most impact.
The statement I mentioned is found in the section called "On being a disciple, or student, of Jesus." He asks a couple of questions then makes a bold statement. "Who teaches you? Whose disciple are you? Honestly. One thing is sure: You are somebody's disciple. You learned how to live from somebody else. There are no exceptions to this rule. For human beings are just the kind of creatures that have to learn and keep learning from others how to live..."
Maybe, if you get a few hours of quiet time over the next few days or weeks you can enjoy this quote as I have over the past couple of weeks. I have used it to counsel a couple of young people who thought they we "self taught" and "their own persons" but by the end of the session had come to agree with this statement. I have used it in a sermon that got a few "amen’s" and some good old fashioned "humms" as I stopped talking and let this idea sink in a bit deeper.
Who is teaching you right now? Whose disciple are you? Honestly. Who is instructing you how to live at this season of life your in? Whose philosophies of life are you abiding by right now? Whose writings are you drawn to and why? Who have you granted leadership to in order to influence how you handle the day to day stuff of life? Colossians 2:8 Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Christ.
By the way I found a cool sight that gives you some good reading without reading the whole book for those who may be interested; http://www.christianbooksummaries.com/ Enjoy!

check out my new moves!

dudes create your own moves!!! http://www.poplockin.com/flash.php

Seminar #3

I spent the day in Kelowna at the Willow Park Church enjoying a "pastors care net" seminar on "dealing with difficult people". The highlight for me was taking one of our elders along for the experience. I love this guy he is such a solid leader and asset to our fellowship so it was great to spend that much time with him in one shot. The seminar was pretty good too. Basically, the seminar morning was about seeing conflict as important to our growth and maturity in any relationship. To work at getting the church to have a healthy culture of understanding regarding the necessity and benefits of conflict when it is managed in a healthy fashion. The afternoon was spent dealing with how we manage conflict within our selves. The theme of the afternoon was that the only person I can change in any conflict is me. We also learned about adrenaline. It is basically a poison released into the body to increase blood flow to the heart and brain while taking all blood from the digestive system. If you get to much of it in your system it causes high blood pressure, artery plaque build up and heart failure. So watch out how much adrenaline you don't work out of your system. A good walk and/or a good sleep is generally enough to clean it out of the body.
Both morning and evening were well prepared and well presented and kept our interest level high along with the Q & A session that provided some rounding out of the principles mentioned by the instructors.
One story that was relayed today was a bit shocking. It is a true story that happened in the past couple of years. It is about a senior pastor who had called the care net help line in a bit of a dilemma. It seems that he had got into a serious dispute with his two fellow assistant pastors. As the conflict increased and the tensions grew over the coarse of a few days if finally reached its fever pitch! The two assistant pastors got so aggressive that a fight broke out between the three of them. The two assistants pounded the daylights out of the senior pastor. He was calling the crisis line because he didn't know what to do! SCARY STUFF!

Anyway hope you all had a great day and don't forget

God is good all the time!
peace-out

God may be Good but.....

God may be good all the time but Plymouth Caravans are a piece of crap! Not only are they a piece of crap but they are expensive pieces of crap. They have crappy transmissions, crappy brake systems, crappy electronics, crappy driver seats, crappy back door access, and they get crappy gas mileage!

I hate my vehicle! This is our second transmission in 2 years!


any body want to by a Plymouth caravan???????


REAL CHEAP!

Stupid vehicle


BUT GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!

There and Back Again by Bilbo Nichol

Wow I had no idea what I was getting into when I left the house last Friday evening. This whole firefighters chaplain thingy is quite the deal. My butt is sore from the seemingly endless hours and hours sitting in a chair that is made for a 20 minute quick-sit. My mind is numb from the over use it sustained and the sharp and heavy learning curve it had to endure. But, I am now in my family room, surrounded by some of the ones I love the most in this world, and all is right for now. I think there was so much to take in that it may take a couple of weeks just to unravel it all and figure out what is usable and what has to go on a shelf somewhere in the back room of my mind for another day and time. I figure the whole thing must have cost our fire department about $1000.00 all in all to send me to this conference. I am not sure how much of what I learned I can actually put into play in my "paid-on-call" fire department here in Peachland. Most the instruction was geared to the majority of chaplains who "serve those who serve" in professional halls in major centers. But there were still some very helpful, insightful and useful information that I know will come in handy as we deal with the large number of incidents that our little hall deals with in a year.
It was good to have a change of pace, to be in Vancouver, to be treated to a couple of Salmon feasts and to meet some pretty terrific people from all over north America. All of them with a passion to serve their fellow mankind with love, compassion and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. AWESOME!

As a friend of mine always says.... GOD IS GOOD>>> ALL THE TIME!

Critical Incident Command System

Yesterday was all about communication. When hell is unleashed in peoples lives to reduce death and damage a well established and well groomed communications system is absolutely necessary. It is a proven reality that without ICS the reality of the book of Judges takes over. That being that "everyone does what is right in his own eyes" and we all know how well that worked out for the children of Israel. Death, devastation, destruction, divorce and discouragement pretty much describes the whole thing. Today, we are back in the class room for another 6 hours straight followed by a nasty test on the details of this system. The text book is about 2 inches think. My brain has never been so challenged! Oh, well, I wouldn't be anywhere else right now as it has been good to be here for a much needed change of scenery.

Good Stress Bad Stress

We started off the morning in much the same venue as yesterday, that is with the issues relating to death. The number one killer of firefighters on a scene is heart attack. The second killer among firefighters was a little shocking to me. The second killer is suicide. After the class I was talking to a chaplain from Virginia and in his hall alone in the past 2 years 3 firefighters have taken their own lives. The stress on these guys is massive.
Needless to say we spent the day talking about these two subjects and the connection between the two top killers is unmanaged bad stress. Bad stress kills. Bad stress is basically any situation that is out of the control of the firefighters but the basic personality of most firefighters is to want to try and control what is basically uncontrollable. The result is bad stress. Feelings of failure, feelings of depression, mental illness and guilt all take an enormous toll on their personal health and also the well-being of their families. The staggering divorce rates among firefighters are as high as 80%.
Basically the whole morning convinced me of the necessity of the role of Chaplain. To watch the firefighters (myself included), to listen to them, to care about them enough to even talk to chief on their behalf if necessary. To provide a safe place to talk out their stuff and to offer encouragement, wisdom and of course directing them towards some professional help could literally save their lives.
The planners of the day were smart enough to remove us from the heaviness of the mornings classroom by sending us all on three buses for a tour of the city. This was followed by a BBQ Salmon feast at Hall #18. We feasted on fresh fish and listened to the Firefighters Band play some terrific music while we ate. It was a terrific way to end the day.

God is Good All the Time!
See you tomorrow.

Death: the destiny of everyone

I spent the entire day in classes dealing with death. I have had some experience with death as I have done too many funerals and memorial services. But most of today was focused on the death of emergency personal and how to handle that. The protocols alone were completely overwhelming. As one instructor put it; " Nobody does funerals like the fire service".
We learned about "Delivering the Death Message" for the better part of today. I remember a time not long ago, where I had to comfort an EMT after they found a women who had hung herself. I also remember having to go to the two different schools to gather up 3 kids and tell them the bad news that their mother was dead. Thankfully my wife, teachers, principles, and school counselors were so professional and helpful the personal trauma of that event was minimized for myself. I also remember back to a call we took were the man had taken a large caliber rifle and did himself in. I was able to assist a few of the guys who were traumatized from that whole experience. There are also other stories of death that affected many of the fellows in our hall, it goes with the line of work we do. Therefore it is an invaluable thing chaplains do when they are there for and serve those who serve others in their time of need.
I found that throughout the day there were times when I found my own eyes welling up with tears as the instructors broke down expressing their own stories of tragedies. They shared with us their dealings with the reality of death that surrounds the firefighters, their families, friends and of course the thousands of victims that are left behind after death strikes their lives.
The room fell "dead" silent as one presenter walked us through the fallen fire fighters from B.C. over the past year. Very moving.
Death. No one really talks about it much outside of funerals. It did feel a bit strange to be talking about it all day long. Kind of made me feel a bit mortal, like I'm not as invincible as I think or feel I am. Very sobering day. As Solomon said, "Death is the destiny of every man and the living should take it to heart and learn from it." Today I learned about it.

One thing I learned today...

Hi everybody. I'm at the holiday Inn in down town Vancouver and I'm attending a chaplains conference here and I thought I would just journal key thoughts that I learn from the sessions in the day classes.
So today it was refreshing to hear the difference between a pastor/preacher/intercessor vs. The ministry of a Chaplain. It is meant to be a role that is mostly about presence. Just being there for those who are experiencing trouble through some sort of trauma. The firefighters, their spouses and their kids are the priority of our chaplaincy duties. Sort of like Pre-evangelism type ministries. Just being there for them can speak volumes about your faith. And when the time is right they will invite you into their lives and at that time and only at that time you can move towards a pastor, preacher, intercessor type role for them.

This fits so well with my overall philosophy of life. I found myself feeling encouraged that there are others with the same kind of thinking as I have.

God is good.
talk to you tomorrow.

Eating and Talking Around the Table

They say that necessity is the mother of all inventions. When faced with the idea of spending this Thanksgiving without family or friends, something had to be done. My wife and I were spending some quality time in the van between kid drop offs when my wife came up with a brilliant idea. Faced with this thought of a lonely thanksgiving, we would make a feast fit for a huge family gathering. Then we would purchase some tinfoil plates and take packaged meals down to the "Peachland ghetto" as I have heard it called. Then we would tootle off to the Edge Water Hotel and do the same thing. As we talked, the vision changed and grew. Why not host a massive feast at the community centre after church and invite anyone who we thought could be alone this Thanksgiving to come and join us? The day and time were set and we began to pass out invitations and invite people to come so that they wouldn't have to be alone either. My wife's office is right downtown, the window she looks out of faces the street. She passed out invitations to all those who seemed down on their luck and probably would be spending Thanksgiving alone and would enjoy a good turkey dinner. As a part of my sermon a couple of Sundays ago, I mentioned this idea to our congregation and the plan took off among our church family with wild enthusiasm! People gave money, turkeys, time, salads; helping hands were so numerous we didn't know what to do with everyone. This idea had taken on a life of it's own and we were excited.
Yesterday, Thanksgiving Sunday, was a day I will not soon forget. We didn't take a head count but we figured that close to 100 people participated in our free thanksgiving feast. One woman's words summed up so well the success of the event. She said, " I really love this. I don't have to sit down to a meal all by myself. It is so nice to be able to eat and chat with someone. There is nothing like eating and talking at the same time." Apparently eating and talking around the table at the same time was a rare event in her life. She was so grateful along with many others who enjoyed eating and talking so much that they asked if we could do this again soon.
We came home last night, exhausted but feeling so great. What a tremendous experience and seeds were planted in our hearts that just maybe we will do this again. Why? Because there is nothing like eating and talking around the table.
In fact, eating around a table, filled with guests is one of life's richest moments. As I look back in Jesus' day, he was famous for "reclining at the table" with anyone from the worst reprobate to the most powerful religious leader. Jesus reclined, dined and had some deep and meaningful conversations around a table. In fact it became a picture of the kind of relationship that Jesus desires with all of us. A kind of "reclining at the table of our hearts" picture. He wants to "do life" with us so that we never have to "dine" alone. All we have to do is invite him in and he will come.