But more importantly than that, Happy Chivetta’s Chicken Dinner Day. Well, that’s not actually a “real day” like the start of Biegner Winter, but they are set up on our front lawn cooking chicken. (Side note: this isn’t a fundraiser St. Paul’s is running, they just needed a site because the church across the street cancelled on them. HOWEVER, they are still kicking $.75 from every meal they sell to the Discretionary Fund to help out families around the holidays. So spread the word and grab some grub!)
I love Chivettas mainly because of the smell. You can be driving down the road anywhere in WNY with your windows down and if you smell that particular smell, you know Chivettas is cooking somewhere nearby. The smell points you right to the savory meal!
What smell do you give off? And what does it point to?
Well, maybe there’s a better way to phrase that.
John the Baptist was a pointer. To Jesus! And he probably did actually smell because he moved his road show out into the wilderness to yell, scream, preach and proclaim that God was about to do something awesome that God had been talking about for a long time. And if you were driving by with your windows down, you knew what he was pointing to right away! Jesus.
When people drive by you and me with their windows down, what will they smell? What will it point to?
In this season of Advent, we await the coming of Christ again. We celebrate the first time he arrived and now we “await.” While we’re waiting, who are we pointing to with our words, deeds and actions? When we preach to the world around us, to our friends and family in relationship, what do people hear/see us saying/doing? Are the ways that we live out the grace-filled compassion and redemption that we have received pointing toward God’s love for the world?
When I smell Chivettas, I know it right away. When people smell me, will it be that clear?
John’s a great reminder to us to make the path a little straighter, the voice a little louder and the actions a little clearer. So that as loved children of God, we can clearly point to Jesus.
Lord, help me to prepare your way and point clearly to you. Amen,
ps from ps…Have you counted them? Have you named them? Have you looked around to see what God has done, is doing and will continue to do.
Blessings. Left. Right. And Center.
“Every time I think of you, I thank my God,” the apostle Paul wrote to one of his churches. Every time.
Now Paul’s life wasn’t easy, wasn’t drama-free, wasn’t void of tough times. Heck, he wrote some of his letters from prison!
And our lives aren’t either. They are filled with challenges, with pot holes, with grief, with transitions, with health concerns and more. But it DOES NOT mean that the blessings go away. It only means that it MORE important to search for them, find them, name them, celebrate them and share them.
Tomorrow will be an easy day to do that. Hopefully you will be around a table with friends or family. Notice the food. Notice the warmth. Notice the quiet if you need that. Notice, even in the chairs that are now empty, the stories that you created together. Notice it all….and hopefully notice a Bills win too!
But that’s tomorrow. What about today? “No day like today” they sing out in the musical Rent. How can you channel Paul’s vision and see more of the blessings around you? How can you name them and count them and let them help you overpower the challenges…even for a moment? How can you share them with those that are struggling to see theirs?
No day like today friends! May God’s blessings pour over you, and may they be super easy to see!
ps from ps… How’s your “To-Do” list going today? Did you nail it? Still tons to do? Were you “perfect” in tackling it? Or maybe it’s time for a much needed break. Check out “Devo’s on the Go” by clicking HERE.
Lord, help me to give myself a break today and realize you’ve already done it all. Amen
ps from ps… Remember when you were a kid and you played with blocks? Or maybe you do now with your kids or grandkids? (Or maybe you do now on your own when no one is looking?) I was always a big fan of plain wooden blocks. Made forts with them. Made roads. Houses. And sometimes towers, just to see how high I could get them. (This was all pre-Jenga’s existence).
But I think my favorite part was knocking them down. It was so easy. A gentle swipe. A quick pope. A block pulled from the bottom. And down they went, sprayed all over the floor.
But then the harder part began….building them back up. Knocking them down was easy. Rebuilding and building up a new tower took much more work. But when I did it, there was a deeper satisfaction with the tower back in place.
We’re not too much different than towers of blocks. A lot easier to knock down than to build up. In all phases of our lives: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Everyday life and people and stuff and junk can more easily knock us down than build us up.
I went for a run yesterday morning. 2.8 miles. It was my first run in almost a month. (Which is why my legs felt like I ran a marathon yesterday when I walked downstairs this morning). Between illness, surgery and loss of a family member, I got knocked down. And it was very easy to get out of any physical (and for me running is also spiritual) routine. I did a guided run with my coach called the: “I don’t wanna run Run.” The run helped me name some frustrations, realize how out of routine I was and give space for the frustrations of how slow I was going. But at the halfway point of this 25 minute run, he helped me realize that I was already halfway through. That I already battled through the toughest part and that I was back on the “road” to being successful, whether I realized it or not. No matter how much slower my pace, how ugly my form, my success came from just starting.
He said: “Congratulations. You could have not run at all today. But you did! It’s way easier to knock yourself down than it is to build yourself up. But when you make that effort, you will have already succeeded.”
Jesus was telling his disciples that time after time in Scripture. He doesn’t ask them to be perfect. He invites them to start the journey, and then restart after they messed up. After the tower of blocks got knocked down. Their success came from beginning that journey each and every day with Jesus by their side. One time they came back from being sent out to the towns and villages around them and when they returned they told Jesus that they saw “Satan fall before their eyes.”
The success comes every time we restart. Every time we begin to rebuild the tower.
Take time this week to assess where you are on the road. In your routine or needing to create a new one? Thriving and tall or feeling knocked over?
There is no right place to be. There only is where you are right now. And that place is just right. But when you find the blocks knocked over (and don’t worry…they will be at some point), we are invited by God to begin the run again. To replace block by block and create a new tower.
It may not be as easy, but it’s in that beginning where we fill find success.
ps from ps… Outtakes – “a portion of the film product that is removed in the editing process and doesn’t make the final cut.”
Yesterday was filming day for WNY Church Unleashed. We’ve been leading this digital worship project for about 18 months now. Each week, it’s a different worship service but filled with the same components of confession, lessons, sermons, creeds and prayers. You would think we would have it down by now right?
But you would be amazed how many times we say the wrong words, mispronounce names, start cracking up, drop something we were holding, knock over worship implements and sometimes a combination of all of the above. I mean, we are professional pastors that lead worship for a living. Live even! And yet sometimes, we really mess it up while we are recording. Our goal is always “one take.” But that rarely happens.
Thankfully, our producers do an excellent job of cutting out our “outtakes.” They take out the messes that we make, clean it up, trim the fat and put out a great product for worship online and on TV.
Reminded me that it’s important to have our faith in God to play that same role in our daily lives: to “adjust” our outtakes.
Let me invite you to give some thought to your life’s current outtakes:
1. What are the moments that didn’t go so well and you just started cracking up? The times you could poke fun at yourself and your good friends around? The moments you don’t need to take yourself so seriously? What can those moments teach you?
2. What lines have you missed? What things that should have been said to loved ones or friends got skipped? Is there a moment this week you can go back and re-run that dialog?
3. Have you knocked anything over on set? Any one? Is there something/someone that needs to be picked up, dusted off, needs an apology?
4. If you could do a “second take,” what would you concentrate on? What action/area needs to be rewound?
Outtakes. The best part about having them is getting to learn from them. We are all blessed that we have such an incredible God in our lives that deals gently and forgivingly with ours. Gives us ways to trim them up. And offers us a more polished second take.
This week, may we laugh at the mess ups, fix the ones we can and noticed the opportunities for better second takes!
Lord, thanks for being an incredible director and producer. Amen
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