Our New Christmas Tradition

It all started with discontent and a conversation on Halloween.
Well, it started long before that really, but that would take a while to tell about those seeds. But Halloween was when those seeds turned to sprouts and several weeks later some little fruits appeared.

So it goes like this...
I don't recall exactly how, but the canned milk version (you know, sweetened and condensed) starts with a conversation I had with my friend Brian. We were going on about Christmas consumerism, children's wish lists and post Thanksgiving Day riots and the line was thrown out "We should go make breakfast for the homeless" or something along those lines. I think at that point we realized that this was something we needed to actually act on. In the next week or so rough plans were made for a trial run in early December.
I will just be honest, in the back of my mind I really hoped, just a little bit, that there would be some really good reason that it just wouldn't work out to do this. I've always been the guy to sneer at the bum holding a cardboard sign on a street corner. Or looked with a wrinkled up nose at a transient passed out in an alley. I've gladly, mercilessly, kicked homeless trespassers out of the laundry rooms my employer owns. Once, several years ago, I was heading home after making a few craigslist sales and had 700 or $800 in hand as I pulled off the freeway. And right there was some guy begging for my money. He was only a few feet away. I picked up my stack of cash and thumbed slowly through it as he watched until the light turned green. Really doing the Lords work there, Josh. What a shame.
But no deviation of our plans came. Brian didn't back out. I didn't plan something "by accident" to derail our breakfast with the homeless. I was actually starting to feel some excitement overcoming my trepidation. We planned our parts of the meal and what we would bring and where we would go. We discussed our hope of what this would become. Our intentions for our families involvement. How we could use this to actually honor our Savior, especially on the day that we usually set aside to honor Him.

A couple days before the "big day" Carin asked what our plans were, how it was going to go and if this was a wise use of our resources. Though Brian and I did have a basic plan for what we wanted to do we had no idea if it would work. We never had experience in this kind of thing. We didn't know if the areas we were planning on going would have the people we were looking for. We didn't know if what we were doing was legal (Nor did we care, actually). We didn't know how we'd be received. But, I told Carin, one thing I was sure of is that some way, some how God had impressed on my heart and Brian's that this is what we needed to do. It was the same clear headed kick in the butt feeling I had when I decided to go on my first mission trip. The same feeling when I knew Carin was going to be my wife. The same in my gut, in my heart, clearly this is what I was meant to do kind of feeling that I have had on a handful of occasions. I didn't have answers to all my questions or hers but I knew this was something that I needed to do.
Now, some of the people that are reading this are rightly thinking "Big deal! You are helping people out. Its not scary, its fun!" And you people are right. And you are much more mature than me. And maybe you are predisposed to this kind of ministry. Maybe the churches you've grown up in do this kind of thing. I haven't. The churches I've grown up in (my present church not included) never did anything like this. The attitude always seemed to be "That's good for somebody else to do" or "I sent a check to the Gospel Mission" or even "Those that are doing it aren't doing it right so we can't help them". And so for me it is scary. Its uncomfortable. It really does require faith. I'm a chicken.

And so the morning came. We had decided to make breakfast just like we did when camping. Brian and I loaded a few bags of oranges and bananas, a coffee maker, a cooler with four dozen eggs, six pounds of ground breakfast sausage, a bag of tortillas, and bag of chocolates, and a Coleman stove into the back of his truck.
Arriving in Seattle we parked under I-5 on the side of the road and across the street from a row of blue tarps, lumpy sleeping bags and dirty backpacks. After realizing that our coffee maker setup was a no-go we got the first three or four breakfast burritos wrapped in foil, grabbed a sack of fruit and jumped the guard rail. A sleeping bag stirred and an eye stared up at us. "Would you like some hot breakfast?" I said. "And how 'bout a banana or an orange?" Brian offered. The smile that cracked across that homeless mans face immediately killed my fear and doubt. This was incredible!

Over the next two hours or so Brian and I handed out 50+ bfast burritos. We ran out of food to soon. We drove away planning our next trip.

This Christmas morning our friend Minta, Carin, Ethan and I loaded up the Subaru with a cooler full of bacon and eggs and tortillas and fruit and chocolates. We got to hand out even more breakfast burritos and fruit than before. And Ethan fearlessly gave chocolates to everyone he met. And that is my goal in all of this. To train not just myself to have compassion for others, but to lead my family in that compassion. For Ethan to grow up a better man than me. To remember that Jesus, my Savior, looked at my wretched self, not with scorn but with compassion. He reached out to me when I had nothing to offer and offered me hope. And life. For me to hold back compassion, as I have in the past, is not only shameful, it is not like my Father. On Christmas we celebrate Gods condescension to the flesh, becoming like us so that eventually He could die in our place. And when we help the helpless we can be imitators of our God. And that seems like a good way to celebrate Him.

I think we found a new Christmas tradition. But I think we'll have to practice this tradition throughout the year.

I'm Gay and I Like Rainbows

There I said it. (But please read all the way through, so there is no misunderstanding😀)

With all this blustering and such over the Duck Dynasty/A&E situation it has been giggle worthy to see the diversity movement try to give diversity a curb sandwich. Some guy from GLAAD decries what Phil Robertson says the Bible says about "gays" is "vile". It is serious. And it is seriously funny. Like belly-aching-laughing-funny!
GLAAD promotes males putting their male parts in the "back alley dumpster" and they think they know what "vile" means? Like, if you aren't laughing at them at this point you are wrong.

But doesn't this speak to two problems? One is understandable, the other is embarrassing. Both require repentance.

Problem one: Unregenerate mankind will warp everything. They take a word like "gay", which at one time meant "happy and carefree" and make it mean "I'm confused about my sexuality". They then take a biblical symbol that reminds us of Gods promise that He won't flood the earth again and churn it into a symbol of "diversity". And then they take that multi-colored banner and beat anybody who diverges from their definition of diversity. You know, anything for tolerance. And then there's the whole same sex marriage thing. ( One wise man man has rightly referred to it as "same sex mirage")
But this is understandable because they are not regenerated and renewed to salvation in Christ. Repentance can change that.

Problem two: Christians who don't laugh and fight. We need to do both. We laugh because the fight is already won and because it is really silly when people call good things dirty and dirty things good. Or say rainbows are about diversity. Or call two dudes holding hands a marriage. We need to fight for those things. And in doing so we need to be gay. Gay as in happy. Not angry that the sinner is acting like a sinner (for once, so also weren't we?) but happy that we are free to to no longer act like that and to come alongside and show others the freedoms that we now have. That's joy. And that is Christian combat. And we can repent for not fighting for rainbows, marriage and being joyful combatants. For not loving sinners properly. For waiting for somebody else to take the stand. For not being leaders. We should know better.

So I am happy (gay) and I love the promise (of rainbows) that God will not wipe us out in a worldwide flood again. And that marriage (in spite of what any earthly law says) is still between a man and a woman. And like Shakespeare has been known to say, that a rose by any other name is still a rose.

Thanksgiving Thankfulness

Most everything I blog about is an edited or expanded version of notes I keep in a couple little notebooks I always have on hand. Sometimes its an idea I've entertained for a long period of time in a notebook and then gets a rough draft here that sits for several weeks or several months. Off the top of my head I can only think of a couple of posts that went from concept to blog without sitting in Draft Purgatory for some amount of time. There are at least three sitting there right now waiting for me to purchase some indulgences.

But one thing I can write about without draft (and can't seem to sleep without writing about now) is the things I am thankful for.
I learned a lot about being thankful from people who have much less than you or I. Really those are the kind of people that are typically the most thankful. I mean, look at us Americans. We can wallow in our wealth and complain that we don't have enough. But those who have little are often hugely thankful for the little things. The Ukrainian people are the ones that taught me much about appreciating little things as well as the big ones. Though I have a lot to improve on I can remember some of those lessons from 18+ years ago. I learned to be thankful (and rightfully ashamed) for having enough clothes and possessions in my dorm to make a mess. The Ukrainian kids in our camp didn't. I learned to appreciate that the soles of my shoes still stuck to my shoes and that glue could hold them together when that no longer became the case, instead of throwing them out. A not so little thing learned was to appreciate the country God gave me and the value still of other countries and cultures.

It's good to be thankful for the things that make us uncomfortable, because they are God given opportunities to grow. I'm thankful that right now I find no real joy in working for my current employer. Yes, really. It's helping me to see some flaws in my character I would have been blind to otherwise. And it is helping me to work on my patience. And another place of employment. And it makes it even more fun working a part time job with some really fun people.

Its late and my list is endless so here is some things I would put into my "Big" things  to be thankful for: My wife. It hasn't always been easy but its always been worth it. I couldn't ask God for anything better than spending my life with her. And yet He gave us something to be thankful for together too, our son Ethan. What a delight! I'm thankful for the roof over our heads and how it worked to live here. For my Dad and step mom, Aletha. They are an endless blessing and encouragement. For my in laws. Most people have horror stories for mother in laws. I don't. I'm glad Ethan will have good examples from both sets of grandparents.
I'm grateful for friends that let you borrow a vehicle for over a year and a half and think you have done them a favor. And I'm thankful that that vehicle was a Jeep Rubicon Unlimited. If you aren't a Jeep person that is the equivalent to handing the keys to your top of the line Mercedes over to somebody and saying "Take care of my car, I'll be gone awhile". Thanks Eric and Leah. We owe you, not the other way around.

I'm thankful for a son that says "Papa,hup" when he needs help.

Some small things, and these things are very small and unnecessary to living but that's an even better reason to thank God: I'm thankful for milk. I'm an adult but I like milk. Its the best beverage after a long day at work. Don't laugh. I'm thankful I can read. And for good, really good books. Campfires in the cold. And cigars to smoke. And whiskey to share with friends. I'm thankful I can blog from a "notebook" and not a phone anymore. In any list of thanks I'm thankful for my Jeep. Many guys have had to sell their "dream car" to be responsible men. They are good men. I have been fortunate that no one wanted mine when it was for sale. Hopefully it will be Ethan's someday.

We have so much to be thankful for in this country. We need to exercise our thankfulness while we have so much to be thankful for because we are coming into an age where those things will be harder to find. Always give thanks to God.