In May of 1965, I was born the fourth daughter of a growing family. My mother later wrote in a baby book that she cried on that day because my dad wanted a boy. I read it. Some would’ve been offended by that, but I kind of laughed and I teased my embarrassed mom about it. I guess I always found humor in the irony that my dad had to wait until number five and six to get sons (not to mention that he was forever outnumbered by the female gender).

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I found this story via a couple of other blogs, and decided it needed to be told to as wide an audience as possible.  It was originally written by a guy named Sam and published HERE. You can find an amusing update from Sam on that comment string if you like.

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In November I heard Dino Rizzo speak in a workshop at the National Outreach Convention in San Diego. Dino talked about ways to serve the community. He said that if he were new in a city he would buy some garbage bags and volunteer at a community event to help do cleanup. If there was no community event, he said he would just go up and down the streets in his neighborhood and pick up trash.

I told this story to our little group that is trying to learn how to serve an inner city neighborhood in our city. We decided that we should try it the following Sunday morning, the second Sunday in December, and then do it every other Sunday morning. Our first Sunday out was a cold, windy day, but we met, prayed and then picked up trash in the neighborhood for about eighty to ninety minutes.

We skipped the fourth Sunday in December, since everyone in the group was out of town or occupied with visiting relatives. However, we resumed our trash pickup last Sunday, the second Sunday of January.

We met, prayed and started picking up trash. About two minutes after I started a car pulled up near me.

(Him) “What are you doing?”

(Me) “We’re picking up trash to make the neighborhood look nice”.

(Him) “Who are you people?”

(Me, while pointing to the yellow shirts we all wore that has our group’s name printed on it) “We’re a little group of Christians just trying to help out the neighborhood.”

(Him) “What church are you with?”

(Me) “We’re just a small group that meets here in the neighborhood.”

(Him) “I mean, where’s your church? The building?” Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve ever watched American Idol, you’ve seen the large numbers of young people who show up to audition who are completely and totally tone deaf. As a singer involved in a music ministry, I am addicted to watching American Idol. Much like watching a train wreck, I just can’t tear my eyes, or my ears, away from the various individuals who are in total denial about their ability to sing.

I wonder if we Christians are sometimes in that kind of denial as well. It’s likely that most of us have no idea how we come off to others or how those outside our sphere react to our belief system and the way we present it. Instead, many of us charge forward assuming that we will be received the way we think we should and we are shocked when it doesn’t work out that way.

It’s easy to do given the fact that most of us work really hard to fit into our surroundings and so we subconsciously mold ourselves to the environment of the Christian and pick up the language, dress, and persona that is needed to be accepted by others. It’s human nature.

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