Extreme Makeover

Wow! This has been the week to be in Pekin, IL. Extreme Makeover Home Edition has been building a new home for the Grys family. One week, new home. All the whistles and bells to protect young Jake who breaks two to four bones per month. I have been down twice to check on progress and am heading back around midnight tonight to see what has been done. The Grys family returns home on Tuesday to a new house for a family that has taken in more than 200 foster children during their lives. This is a new life, new start, this program represents all the good we can accomplish if we work together for a common goal. Works in the secular world for EMHE, works in the Christian world. As children of Christ we need to be far less focused on denominational issues and more focused on Christ issues. What could we accomplish in a week? Anyone besides me ready for a makeover?

80

Last night Skip Stuber and family celebrated birthday number eight zero. Significant not just because of who was present but because of who wasn't present. A wife, home sick with the flu, a younger brother who passed away, and a son who passed away many years ago. Skip was willing to share significant events in his life, from losing a baseball game to Allentown when he was an 8th grader, to watching Jug Stuber slide right out the gym door during a basketball game in Tremont where too many people had brought slushy snow into the gym making the floor wet, to milk route days where he picked up milk from farmers who had German P.O.W.'s working their fields, to watching his dad heft 100 pound milk cans onto the truck with one arm and a knee. I learned that wealth was not the divider of people that it is today, everyone was poor during the depression. We learned that students havn't changed much except they probably aren't as rough (I have not seen a PCHS student drug around with a rope around their neck.). I learned that families who struggle together and stick together will probably struggle together and stick together throughout life. I learned that faith is the "stick together" in all things. I learned that fighting the good fight in marriage is worth it. Love grows through time and overcoming marriage flaws is worth the fight. If you love someone enough to marry them no matter their weaknesses you later discover, fight the good fight look beyond those weaknesses and grow that marriage to maturity. Faith in a God that cares for us, in good times, bad times, and in times where we aren't sure is essential to making any sense of this existence. As you look at this mini-clip may you think about whether your own family will be this close when you are 80. Will your family walk in the knowledge of Truth and the confidence that God is the purpose of life? May God bless you and yours.

In Whom Do I Trust

This will seem even a bit more rambling than usual. We (First United Methodist Church, Peoria, IL) celebrated our 175th anniversary last weekend. It was a wonderful opportunity for those of us new to FUMC to meet some of the previous pastors, hear their most memorable moments and watch their reunions with people who they have not seen in years. On Sunday morning Bishop Gregory Palmer preached from Psalm 19 and Philippians 4. Points to ponder from that message were:

• we have been created to give thanks to who God is and all He has done
  
• we are to remember that the heavens declare the glory of God
• we must not lose sight of our created state and that as created beings we are to praise and give thanks to our Creator
• the difference between us and other parts of God's creation is that we get to choose who or what we will follow........choose wisely
• it doesn't take much faith to praise God when things are going well, we must remember that our praise is not contingent upon the economy
• we must allow ourselves to be shaped by God into a people of praise, this is really contrary to our very nature
• we must not be a people who only traffic in history, with our knowledge of the past we can look to the future
• THE BIBLE IS FULL OF "CHARACTERS" and yet when a fellow believer steps out of line we jump all over them [I am thankful David isn't running for president, he would make Bill Clinton look like a monk. my thought added]
• we must look at our past as a way to view the future. . .[do we not have the best people running for political office because we get wrapped up in their past rather than their present and future, me again]
• we must see where we have come from so we can see where to go
• we are not to be blinded by our past so we can't see the future
• we can't let our past encumber us in the present and future
• What am I pressing toward? What next can Christ help me do? All our programs should reflect our confidence in the resurrection!

Each of these thoughts is a separate blog but I will allow those who stumble upon this site to examine their thoughts and decide what they need further reflection upon.

Please remember to get out and vote, pray, fast, and then cast your vote. No recommendation from me, no endorsement, just an admonition to exercise your civic duty.

Peace and Grace