Earth...Heaven's Appetizer

So I was surfing the net and reading Dan Kimball's blog and he was talking about this guy who wrote a pretty nasty piece on Kyle Lake (see friendly lookin guy in picture).

Now I have never heard of Kyle before today. The sad thing is I did not learn about him for what he did but instead how he died. (He sounded like a pretty alright guy to me tho.) It turns out he died in the baptismal tank (a waist deep tub at the front of many churches) when he took hold of a microphone and was electrocuted in front of an audience. Brutal and a little scary.

The nasty article basically said it was a Annanias and Sapphira moment, God struck him dead and basically wiped him from the planet. The article was pretty harsh. I guess the writer was willing to cast the first stone. Brutal and very scary.

Kyle's last sermon ended with this, " Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun. If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE. Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time. If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well. Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done-a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed. If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old's nose, don't be disgusted if the Kleenex didn't catch it all… because soon he'll be wiping his own. If you've recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well. At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you're eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift."

Moments before he died, he prayed, "Surprise me, God".

Here's what I think...for all that's worth. I just finished reading and totally enjoyed The Slumber of Christianity by Ted Dekker where he talks about longing for heaven. But Ted also talks about enjoying earth as a appetizer for heaven. Kyle seemed to be connoisseur....savouring, not gulping, God's created pleasures on earth. My sense is he was preparing to revel in the joys of heaven and the creator. Maybe heaven was Kyle's surprise! Sounds like the ultimate surprise to me!! When did we as Christians start seeing physical death as a punishment? "Alive, I'm Christ's messenger; dead, I'm his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can't lose." Philippians 1:21

If you skimmed everything else, in this post...linger on these verses below:

"For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade--and we'll never have to relocate our "tents" again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what's coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we're tired of it! We've been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less." 2 Corinthians 5:1 +

Let me know what you think!

The Sophisticated Side-Pony

This long weekend Bobby & I and some fabulous leaders took some of our high schoolers camping at Pitch & Praise in Paris, Ontario.

Anyhoo, in between being quite hungry, tired and really, really cold, I started getting BA (A team speak for Bad Attitude). I did let the girls do my hair which felt like a bit of penitence. Heavy on the gel, aggressive in the brushing, big bobble and poodlish in the photo. After which my hair was then revamped into a "sophisticated side-pony". Oh the pain!

Bobby and the other leaders, on the other hand, were full of catchy energy. They just seemed to sweat all weekend, from the great UK techno worship thangs to the sessions to the sports. Bobby, Lisa, Martin, Melissa F. & Erin; you are truly an amazing, hilarious and hardy bunch. Jesus said, "I have come that you may have life and have it to the full." John 10:10b. Way to live it to the full!

Although at first glance the weekend seemed disappointing to me, God came through in miraculous ways, for example: Everyone was dry in our swaying tents, no one got sick or seriously wounded, some youth made awesome decisions, and some even found out they were stronger than they thought. I'm so glad God didn't let my BA get in the way! Here's to less BA and more "sophisticated side-ponies"!

Showers of Popcorn

We've gone to two different Jays games for a toonie each! Its crazy! Especially when we grab some streetmeat aka hotdogs for a loonie on Queen Street and just walk over to the Sky Dome. Its been great, cheap fun and bonding with the youth! Love that! Oh and check out the cool picture one of our girls took! Have I mentioned before how amazing the youth we're hanging out with are. They are so fun, easy to like, creative, generous and appreicative. We'd take them to all the toonie Blue Jays games they'd like! Oops...almost forgot...the last game was pretty good too! 3 broken bats, 1 homerun, 2 runs and THE WAVE with Bobby showering the 200 section with popcorn...really it was an accident!!

Play that Cowbell!

So D'Arcy is back from Calgary and I think most people in Canada know D'Arcy or will soon enough. He came to visit us and was checking out the church where he said something like, "You have a cowbell! Your church is awesome!" or maybe it sounded cooler than that. Anywhoo, somebody said something like "Ya but we weren't allowed to play it. Hahaha." Well the cowbell rang out this past weekend during a fabulously warm rendition of "Lean on Me". Hooray!

The cowbell rang once more (acutally quite a few times) as we had our first 'young adult lunchy-thing'. iDRUM lime (www.idrum.info) performs on the patio of the building we live in every Sunday afternoon. They were wonderful. In fact, the whole building kind of grooves to the beats. Talk about feeling the music!

Their music celebrates and so does ours.

I guess the reason I love the cowbell is because of its over-the-top, bordering-on-rediculous sound. It reminds me of God's love. Its rediculous...why would he love me, create a world for us, sacrifice Jesus for me, bother with us when we constantly ignore him, want me to be in heaven with him? O the wonder of it all.

I like to think in heaven I'll play the cowbell and I'll love playing it and not be ashamed. "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Maybe its time I "picked up the cowbell", pushed through the embarrassment and played like I have something to celebrate here and now. Because I do. And hopefully so do you.