Racine

This past Thursday I found out that 2 of my best friends in our church would be moving away to Racine Wisconsin. He has been unemployed for over a year and finally received a job offer he had to accept. This is really great for them. They shared the news with our small group and we celebrated with them cheers and tears. We all had our selfish little reasons for not wanting them to go. Both Garth and Peg are great friends of mine. Garth is my golf partner and probably the only real close person I would confide in outside of my family. Peg is a beautiful person and my spiritual hero and also a "Hawkeye" fan. They could always bring a smile to my world just by being around. Both were very active in our church. They will be missed there also. Both were involved in music and Garth is a fellow deacon and Peg is a spiritual leader. I hope her vision for our church does not fade with her leaving. If I was going to send one couple out into the world as ambassadors of Christ it would be Garth and Peg. They enjoy life to the fullest and yet are very serious about leading others to Christ. W e always want to get together and have dinner. We hardly ever did because of our schedules. I regret that we didn't take the time to do so. And here they go off to Wisconsin. I am sure God has a plan for them there and some church will be lucky to have them become a part of it. And yes there are emerging churches there.

is your coffee pot plugged in ?

Our church currently is going through a faces of Christmas series. Every Sunday there is a modern photo representing a biblical character from Jesus birth. John the Baptist kind of looked like a cross between Popeye and a homeless person. This past Sunday was a couple representing Mary and Joseph. Joseph kind of looked like Chris O'Donnell and Mary reminded me of Rebbecca St James. The thing that struck me about this photo was the look on their faces. Mary was looking at Joseph with eyes filled with dread and Joseph had his hand on his chin with a look of deep concern and contemplation. The look so inspired me to lean over to my friend and whisper I think she is asking "honey did you remember to unplug the coffee pot? He kind of chuckled and agreed. So for the next hour I sat and looked at this picture and let the thoughts flow through my mind. It was the uncertainty of the picture that kept entering my mind. A few weeks ago we were eating dinner at a local fish fish fry with friends from church and their parents. During the course of our conversations about various subjects their mom blurted out: "well if I go to heaven after I die I will be in a better place." My immediate response was "your not sure if your going to heaven?" She looked at me and said "well I think so". I was getting some pretty dirty looks from around the table so I quickly let the subject go. This moment stuck in my head and I mentioned to my wife on the way home and she said " she probably just didn't mean what she said" My evangelism explosion training kept running through me and I just kept wondering if she really knew if she was going to heaven or not.
This mom is a member of our church and sits on come committees. I would like to think she was certain she was going to heaven. I also realise that there are plenty of people attending our church who probably are not going to heaven. I probably should have gone through the EE routine despite the fact it would kill the dinner atmosphere. The uncertainty of her words just made me think of the picture up in front of church of Joseph and Mary. I am wondering if she started thinking about whether she is going to heaven or not. I hope so. Maybe she has a certain uneasy feeling about it going through her mind. Kind of like the feeling you have wondering if you left the coffee pot plugged in at home.