A sunday in the life

Sundays are always so up-and-down.

This morning I played sax with worship team. I was up late watching The Blind Side. What an excellent movie! Thing is, I woke up terrible groggy in the morning. It didn't help that I was short on sleep the previous day (the big move for gramps and grams). I practically fell asleep in the shower, and was surprised when I emerged to discover that I was already late for WT warmup practice! Arrrgh....

As services progressed, I found myself more and more worshipful. God is good! I started out completely out of it, but was drawn closer. After third service I went to Applebees with a few friends. As I left I saw a guy standing on a corner, in the freezing rain, flashing a sign asking for a job so that he could make Christmas happen for his family. I just went on my way, but soon sensed a tug to turn around. Thus, I turned around in Riverside and headed back to G-millz, parked, and walked up to the guy. Just as I approached, Dan Mori and Sara Strong came right up behind me!

This was so cool. Praise God! I approached the man to pray for him, while Dan and Sara approached to give to him; they had money and a gift card. What if he just got the money, or what if he just got the prayer. These are both significant... but incomplete! Afterwards, I wondered if I was like the hypocrite who says, Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well-fed and yet does nothing to meet the person's practical need. I totally felt like that was a God-moment, bringing together the practical gift and the prayer gift.

Next I went to Soul Full, chatted with Spencer (always a good decision), did a bit of reading, and talked about ministry with Jess. I enjoy talking to her, but it's time to bring somme meat to the convo. It seems I talk a lot more about religion than faith.

Still later, I went to Wegmans to do some reading. I started talking to another dude who was sitting in the cafe and playing cards on his computer. Ron Christiansen is a Vietnam veteran, and retired after working for Corning for 40 years. He's part Cherokee(?) and has adopted some of the religion and worldview from his Native American heritage. We had some pretty interesting conversation. He's big on talking about "common sense", which kind of involves a lot of worldly wisdom. We talked about ideas of what happens after death / Heaven and Hell. I layed out my perception of God who is relationship-focused, and basically laid out the Gospel; Jesus was sacrificed so that we can relate with a perfect God. We spend eternity either in relationship with Him or separated from Him, and if we are in relationship with Him, then we as the Church are to be change agents, transforming the world into the place God wants it to be.

I am very thankful that God is building in me the ability to express the Gospel. I have had so much fear in this area in the past! I want to express this freely, only hesitating when the Holy Spirit prompts me to hesitate. May it be so! Amen.