Worth the risk

So my wife and I were talking to this young man last night about the possibility of him moving into our home. We have done this from time to time with other people in need of a roof over their heads, but this time is different. There is greater risk involved than times past.
By the time he was 10, he had seen 3 people shot to death just several feet from him. His dad has been in prison for his entire life, and numerous other personal events have taken place that have taken him in and out of shelters and group homes. As we were sitting there listening to his story and learning what transpired in his life to get him to this point I couldn't help but think of the opportunities I have had in life just because of the parents God chose me to be born of. This kid is sitting behind the eight ball in large part because of who his parents are. Sometimes life just doesn't seem fair. Due to issues from his past, he has the potential to be violent at times, and therein lies the risk. I have a wife and 3 little kids to be concerned about. They are my priority.
While we were meeting with this young man, we asked where he had been sleeping. It turns out he had found a nice comfy spot in an alley behind a bank, where the drizzling rain has been keeping him awake for the last couple of nights.
I know that I have a duty to protect my family from harm, but what happens when that duty runs face first into my duty to not allow another human being to sleep in an alley in the cold drizzling rain?
After we got back home last night, I was reading this book by Donald Miller called "A million miles in a thousand years". There is a part in the book where Donald is thinking about how he grew up without a dad and decided he was going to help others who might be going through the same thing. He hooks up with this other guy named Duncan, who had a similar idea and acted upon it, and as a result, has helped hundreds of underprivileged kids find a platform to launch a new life from. The two men were sitting in Duncan's office, discussing their past. As I was reading, I came to this comment:
"The most painful of Duncan's recollections was that he never had an adult friend. Somebody to show him the way".
Then I started thinking about Jesus….
Jesus was a risk taker. He went to places where He knew people wanted Him killed. He went there because there was a goal He was after that was worth the risk involved.
His Father's business.
We have a graphic on a wall at our house that says, "..as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord". I noticed that it doesn't say, "…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, unless it involves risk of some kind".
I suppose I could spend the rest of my life trying to be safe, and in turn never have to help anyone, but then I am just not so sure I would be able to tell someone that I am a Jesus follower.
I was listening to Francis Chan this morning and he said, "we are not just called to SHARE a verbal picture of God with people, we are called to SHOW a picture of God".
What better way to live this out than to take a little risk that might just lead to a huge payout for a young man that calls an alley his home.

The H1N1 has left the building

Over the last 10 days, it was like Night of the Living Dead at our house. People were walking around like their brains had been sucked out and replaced with green syrup that runs freely from the nostrils of the abducted. I began to wonder if it would ever end……and then……the H1N1 left the building. I don't think it happened all at once, but the proof that it had evacuated our bacteria-ridden house unveiled itself to me in about a 3 minute segment while at the dinner table the other night. I will do my best to describe the scene as I remember it.
All 5 of us are at the table eating…..
Caiden: jumps down and goes into the bathroom
Caiden: jumps out of bathroom with underwear around ankles and begins hopping to the table
Gavin: laughing, decides to join the naked jumping
Me: laughing
Kir: "Boys, pull your pants up and get back to the table"
Gavin: pulls pants up and gets back into his chair
Caiden: pulls pants up and goes back into the bathroom
Aislin: climbs down from her chair and pulls her pants down and begins hopping around
Caiden: back out of the bathroom, pants down and joins his sister hopping around
Me: laughing
Kir: "Aislin and Caiden! Pull up your pants, sit down and finish your dinner"
Gavin: "Can I be excused?"
Kir: "Have a couple more bites of chicken"
Gavin: shoves 2 chicken tenders in his mouth and disappears into living room
Caiden: follows Gavin
Me: laughing
Kir: "Caiden, you're not done, get back in here"
Caiden: rounds the corner with pants down hopping to the table, laughing hysterically
Aislin: climbs down with blueberry juice all over her and starts to pull her pants down
Kir: "Aislin!! Little girls do not do that…..neither should your brothers"
Me: laughing
Kir: "Thanks for your support, Tom"
Me: laughing
Now I feel something cold and pointy on the side of my head.
Gavin: with pants down holding a light saber to my temple, "I'm Luke Skywalker and you must die!!"
Kir: laughing
Me: "Thanks for your support, Kir"

Helpless

So, all three of our kids have the H1N1 virus. Nice.
Our oldest child has it the worst by far. Last night we gave him some medicine to help ease the high fever and numerous other symptoms and it ended up causing hallucinations. He seriously thought his fingers were tools. So his doses are pretty much over. It is hard to see your child go through something like that (let alone all three), and know that there is absolutely nothing that you can do about it. The virus must run it's course and with all of the confirmed children deaths linked to the H1N1, it is a bit unnerving. We humans love to be in control of things don't we? I am not a big fan of flying because I feel like I have more control of my own life in my car. Even something as small as holding the remote control to the TV gives most men pleasure because no channel will be changed unless we say so! The feeling of being helpless in any situation is just not in our human make-up.
I believe that is why some people have a difficult time trusting their lives to Jesus.
We read in the Bible where is Jesus telling someone to sell all of their possessions and follow Him. Even our remote control? Talk about feeling helpless. As my wife and I sat there last night, watching our child hallucinate and recalling the words of the pediatrician when she said that there is nothing else she could do and that we would just have to let the virus run it's course, I knew I was completely and utterly helpless. Nothing I did at that point was going to change the state of my child's health. But here is where the awesome part comes into play. Knowing that I was helpless, the only thing I could do at that time was pray. So I did. My helplessness drove me into communication with God.
Maybe you are at a point in your life where you are feeling helpless. You might feel like you are slowly losing control over some aspect of your life. May I suggest that if you have found that you have run out of options and do not know what step to take next, that you try communicating with the one that created you. The Bible says that He will never leave you of forsake you. Just as I was there for my sick and hurting child, He is there waiting to love and care for you. But He loves you enough not to intervene in your life until you request His presence. Will you call on Him today? You need not feel helpless any longer.

The Call

One of my all-time favorite movies is Billy Madison. I love it because no matter what mood I am in at the moment it comes on the TV., I will always laugh. There is a part of the movie that isn't so funny to me though. Near the end of the movie, Billy decides that he needs to correct some things he has done in his past that may have hurt someone. So he calls this guy up and apologizes for his behavior when he was younger. The guy then crosses Billy's name off of his list of people that made fun of him when he was younger that he intends to kill. It's intended to be funny but it always gives me that feeling like someone just punched me in the gut. The problem is that I know I have done some things in my past that have hurt people. I have said some things that have been cruel and I have participated in some practical jokes that more than likely have wrecked someone's day, or week, or maybe even their year. I wonder if when those people from my past hear my name in conversations, if that is the first thing that comes to their mind. I wonder if they have forgotten about it. I wonder if they are still holding onto what I had said or done?
There is really only one way to be sure.
Today I am going to begin a list of possible candidates that I have wronged. My goal is to have contacted everyone on it by the end of the year. I am going to ask each one to forgive me. It is my sincere hope that when I reach the end of my list, that it will turn out to be a new beginning for both parties. Maybe you have hurt someone a while ago. Maybe you hurt someone last week or last night. Can you come up with a list? Do you have the courage to make the difficult calls? It will be tough without question, but the end result will be worth the pain. Our short pain may be only a fraction of the pain that the person on the end of your telephone line has been experiencing. You have the ability to change that for them. What are you going to do about it?

The weather forecast

My wife and I had the TV. on the other night looking for the weather forecast for the following day. While waiting for the chipper weather guy to deliver the bad news, the following stories were delivered:
This week in Chicago, a kid literally got beat to death with 2x4's, and it was caught on video.

John Evander Couey died this week. He was the guy that kidnapped a 9 year old little girl and buried her in a garbage bag.

A tsunami went through the South Pacific this week and 112 people are dead so far.

Genocide in Darfur is continuing and the death toll is estimated at over 300,000 human lives.

Looking back, I just remember thinking to myself, "That's horrible……..what's the weather for tomorrow?" I mean, have I become so numb to tragedy and disaster that horrifying events like the ones mentioned above don't even make me pause and pray for the victims? I know people who don't even watch the news. They tell me that there is too much bad news and they just can't take it anymore. I usually respond by saying, "How do you keep up with the events in the world?" I guess I have just always found it weird when people didn't watch the news. Now, I am just not so sure that they are the weird ones. I wonder if Jesus would watch the news looking past the horrific stories of the week, anticipating the forecast for tomorrow. I don't want my heart to be hardened to tragedy but I am afraid it has been. Instead of getting to the point where my heart breaks for the things that make Jesus' heart break, I just choose to gloss over them and make the excuse that I can't help everyone. How different would this world be to live in if we all chose to love one another as much as we love ourselves? We may not be able to help EVERYONE, but we can't let that be an excuse not to help ANYONE. Who have you sacrificed for today? Who have you listened to someone who needed a shoulder to cry on? Have you reached out to someone who is lost? Wouldn't this be a better place if we all chose to do that?
What's the weather forecast for tomorrow? I could guess that it will be another gray overcast and rainy day…….but I have the ability to make it a sunny one for someone. So do you.