What a great time of year...

I'll go ahead and get this out.....Scott Harper beat me two out of three games yesterday. They were good games, but games I let slip through my fingers. And as expected, due to my slightly exaggerated victory boast two weeks ago, he showed no mercy. Oh well....you live to play another day.

I love this time of year. Football on Friday nights, football on Saturdays, football on Sundays, and the World Series mixed in as a nice filler between games. It's also been great waking up to 40 degree weather and actually experiencing what most of the country would call fall. It's a rare occurence around here.

You know, I sometimes think about what kind of activities fill my day. Are they things that will have meaning, be productive, help someone out, or will they just be meaningless activities that take up the 24 hours we call a day. All of these things are important to have in our lives. I can fully identify with the need for meaningless, fun activities. However, there's nothing quite like the feeling of accomplishing a project, chore, or something that has meaning. I love the times that I spend playing video games, watching movies, tv, or blogging about stuff that may or may not be read. But I also love finishing up things around the house, leading worship, teaching, eating, playing with my kids, eating, and grocery shopping in order to enhance my eating.

There has to be the same kind of balance in our churches. People have to receive applicable, meaningfull messages of truth when they come to our churches. But they also have to enjoy being there for that to happen. There are so many things that churches can and should do to make people enjoy coming. We can't expect anyone to have everything together before they come, nor can we expect someone to enjoy seminary lessons on theology when they may not even be sure why they are there . We are there to show them the love of Christ regardless of what skeletons they may have in the closet, or what my be happening in their lives right now. I'm certainly not condoning watering down the gospel message, but I am saying that it's okay if they hear it because they came for the free pizza.

Oh well, just something I was thinking of as we planned out our year with possible sermon series topics, drama, music, and other stuff. I'm going to watch the World Series (the Astros are up 3-0 in the 3rd), fold clothes, and help my son on a project about sea creatures. I think that's a good mixture......oh yeah I'm going to eat too. What a great time of year......

I'm out.....

p.s....and by the way Bob, my shirt is off. Lata...