The Super Bowl has become a staple of pop culture in America. The grand finale for crazed fans to pack the coliseums to watch their favorite gladiators do battle on the gridiron. It’s the start of a new year of commercials and the kickoff towards the next season and the upcoming NFL Draft. It’s the Super Bowl and anyone, who is anyone, watches…except me this year.
The entire week leading up to the big game I grew more and more distraught over missing a good portion of the game for a youth group night. On a side note, the moment I did turn on the game…the power outage happened. I pouted like a five year old not getting his way in the toy aisle. Think about it, it’s the Super Bowl, who doesn’t watch the Super Bowl?
Amidst my angst and animosity in the days leading up to kickoff I was asked to take part in a skit with two other core adults for the Jr. High group. The skit would take place the same night of the game, which was an unexpected and much needed surprise. It was a skit that highlighted a teenage girl who attempted to make time for her faith, but struggled with the onslaught of pressure from a close girlfriend persuading her to go to a party. She fit God into her life when it was convenient for her and her schedule. Here's the kicker though... I was asked to be Jesus. How's that for karma?
The girl in the skit was asked why she couldn’t come out to the party, what she was doing and why she was being so weird, but she was too afraid to share what she was doing…praying. She made up an elaborate story, lied about what she was doing and put aside what was important for something “better” and more “fun.” How fitting that it was the night that I was all worked up for missing the first half of the game here I am playing the part of Big Gunz in a skit about prioritizing our life?
It was a humbling reminder, and a figurative quick kick to the face, that I still struggle with, like many of you, where I allow pride and self-interest get in the way of what matters most. Living a moral life, spending time serving others, etc. Just a couple days prior I had thrown a pity party for one, because I would miss out on a couple funny commercials and a touchdown or two and then I was asked to play Jesus in a skit about prioritizing our lives.
There's those subtle reminders we get when are besides ourselves, holding ourselves back from being a better person, a more supportive friend, the best son or daughter, you get the point. Where we get so caught up in what we think is most important, but really, in the grand scheme of things, fails in comparison of being able to spend more time with your family, to be able to give your self and time by bringing up arms or losing yourself in prayer. It's those simple reminders from God, life, an angel, whatever you believe that reminds us are true purpose among the chaos and grime of life and that's to love.
Until next time...
2.10.2013
Grocery Shopping From Someone Else's Cart
Imagine shopping at the grocery store like you most likely do every week. Think about the list you write out or that's temporarily engrained into your mind. Am I out of milk? Do I need toilet tissue? How about more hummus? You venture through aisle after aisle and toss the items into your cart. The pile of groceries gets higher and higher as it consumes your germ infested metal cart you picked up in the parking spot beside your car.
The other day I was shopping at the grocery store and I saw the most bizarre occurrence. This gentleman walked away from his cart to search for items and as his back was turned this old lady - the typical purple haired lady that stood four feet tall, just able to see over her cart - parked her cart next to his and began picking items out of his cart. She surveyed the scene as she delicately placed items out of the way as she dug deep, every few seconds looking up to see if he was coming back. I was amazed by the buffoonery. It was as entertaining as it was joyfully intoxicating as I slowly moved in to get closer to the action. He would occasionally drop an item off at his cart as she stood near the cooler and when he'd walk away, his back turned from her, she'd go back at it and pick out items until he took his cart and walked off.
It's funny how a once self reliant society, forced to fight the good fight to get somewhere, has transformed into reliant of everyone else and dependent on getting it now. Entitled to the sweet rewards with half the labor. With the rise in technology and the demise of personal accountability, there's a direct association with the animosity we see on the roads, the discontent in our conversations and such hurtfulness broadcasted on the news. We've become accustomed to having items emailed to us and received in seconds. We are told that we can "get it your way" and have a million and one experts advertise their thoughts to us.
Like the lady in the grocery store, we've become too impatient to actually take the time to go about our way and achieve everything that we've put on to our figurative shopping list of life and accept that it might take some time. The woman, much like a lot of us, took a short cut to get things done quicker, but didn't even consider the effect it had on others, let alone how much time it would have taken to just push through it.
It's no surprise to me today in my life that I've grown so impatient and weak of heart that I often forget that in time good things happen, especially in terms of conquering even the weakest moments in my life. That if I trust in the Lord, through the good and the bad, I'll be able to follow that righteous path set forth. It is a simple, yet daunting task, to humble my heart and open my eyes to what it is I'm called to live out in my life. Just focus on the next three seconds and allow things to happen as they come, but never losing faith in what it is I'm to do.
This lesson I learned in the grocery store was a wonderful for me to think about as I prepare for Lent. A time in which we are called to give of ourselves in prayer, alms giving and fasting. To fast from the things that take us away from growing closer in faith and those things we consume our lives with the most. To give up alms so that we love others, by putting them before our own selves and to always give thanks through simple conversations with the Lord in prayer. It is in Lent that we remember that we're called to put to rest our pride and give thanks for what truly means most: life. The life that was sacrificed that we may live and the life that we've been called to live out. That instead of growing jealous and picking and choosing from what's in someone else's cart, we give thanks for the things we've been given and that we've collected in our own. That we humbly open our hearts for a Love that is so great. So pure. So authentic. For now is the time we focus on all the things we have jotted down on our shopping list and we fine tune the things we really think we need on it.
(This sounded so good in my head, but...)
Until next time...
The other day I was shopping at the grocery store and I saw the most bizarre occurrence. This gentleman walked away from his cart to search for items and as his back was turned this old lady - the typical purple haired lady that stood four feet tall, just able to see over her cart - parked her cart next to his and began picking items out of his cart. She surveyed the scene as she delicately placed items out of the way as she dug deep, every few seconds looking up to see if he was coming back. I was amazed by the buffoonery. It was as entertaining as it was joyfully intoxicating as I slowly moved in to get closer to the action. He would occasionally drop an item off at his cart as she stood near the cooler and when he'd walk away, his back turned from her, she'd go back at it and pick out items until he took his cart and walked off.
It's funny how a once self reliant society, forced to fight the good fight to get somewhere, has transformed into reliant of everyone else and dependent on getting it now. Entitled to the sweet rewards with half the labor. With the rise in technology and the demise of personal accountability, there's a direct association with the animosity we see on the roads, the discontent in our conversations and such hurtfulness broadcasted on the news. We've become accustomed to having items emailed to us and received in seconds. We are told that we can "get it your way" and have a million and one experts advertise their thoughts to us.
Like the lady in the grocery store, we've become too impatient to actually take the time to go about our way and achieve everything that we've put on to our figurative shopping list of life and accept that it might take some time. The woman, much like a lot of us, took a short cut to get things done quicker, but didn't even consider the effect it had on others, let alone how much time it would have taken to just push through it.
It's no surprise to me today in my life that I've grown so impatient and weak of heart that I often forget that in time good things happen, especially in terms of conquering even the weakest moments in my life. That if I trust in the Lord, through the good and the bad, I'll be able to follow that righteous path set forth. It is a simple, yet daunting task, to humble my heart and open my eyes to what it is I'm called to live out in my life. Just focus on the next three seconds and allow things to happen as they come, but never losing faith in what it is I'm to do.
This lesson I learned in the grocery store was a wonderful for me to think about as I prepare for Lent. A time in which we are called to give of ourselves in prayer, alms giving and fasting. To fast from the things that take us away from growing closer in faith and those things we consume our lives with the most. To give up alms so that we love others, by putting them before our own selves and to always give thanks through simple conversations with the Lord in prayer. It is in Lent that we remember that we're called to put to rest our pride and give thanks for what truly means most: life. The life that was sacrificed that we may live and the life that we've been called to live out. That instead of growing jealous and picking and choosing from what's in someone else's cart, we give thanks for the things we've been given and that we've collected in our own. That we humbly open our hearts for a Love that is so great. So pure. So authentic. For now is the time we focus on all the things we have jotted down on our shopping list and we fine tune the things we really think we need on it.
(This sounded so good in my head, but...)
Until next time...
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