First, silliness then something important.

 Today, in a last ditch effort, I am willing to be elected as president. I have three reasons:

1. I promise to stay away from Washington at least 300 days a year. Can’t do much damage if I’m not there to do anything at all.

2. I promise that I will work not only cross the aisles but cross the ocean to places like Bermuda and Tahiti.  Without presidential over sight these may well prove to be trouble spots in the future.

3. I promise not only a chicken in every pot but a pig in every drive way. I don’t know what that means but it sounds good.

Now, I realize I am not on any ballot so therefore it will take a write in effort. Before you think this is impossible with such a short amount of time. Actually, it isn’t. Let’s say that if there are 300 of you who read this article, then each one of you write to everyone on your list let’s say there are 10 of those, that would mean that within minutes, 3000 will know about me.  An click later  will provide us with 30,000. You see where this is heading? Within minutes, 300,000 and later 3,000,000. By this evening, everyone who can vote should  know me.

 With 7 days to go, we could generate about 25,000 hits a day with reply and reply all and forward to our entire address books, we should be able to more than get the message out.

Not, that was silly. This isn’t: Tuesday is election day. Go and vote. While I may have my preferences, we should all go and participate. My dad, my father in law and so many others have given either their lives or given a portion of their lives just so that we have that privilege. Join me won’t you? VOTE TUESDAY!!!

 Peace and grace. Reed

I like The Eagles as a band and musicians. In my opinion, they are the greatest band we have produced. They go all the way from rock to country with ballads and social conscience music thrown in for good measure. I know that others may disagree or even feel that a preacher shouldn’t listen to that kind of music. Still, I like them.

But what I want to talk about is perspective. I used to complain about my dad listening to the music of the 40’s and complain how old that music was. He would complain how my music was just noise and junk. Now this was in the 70’s so we’re talking about music that was about 30 years old.

One day I way riding with my daughter listening to The Eagles and talking about it being great music unlike the junk she liked. She informed me that my music was 30 years old and old fashioned. It seems I had turned the final corner and turned into my father.

It is a matter of perspective.

So too in faith and our Christian journey. For some it has been a dramatic trip with twists and turns and with others it has been a quiet and fairly straight forward trip form one destination to another.  For some, it is conservative and for others it has been liberal. What is important is not whether or not we get there one way or another. What is important are two facts.

 First, we are all struggling to figure it out. We may do so with heads silently bowed in prayer and others may raise their hands in open praise.  It is important to remember that everyone of us is on the same journey to arrive in the Kingdom. The second thing, it that we need to help each other on the journey. It is as exciting to watch someone arrive at an “AHA” moment as someone who always seemed to feel it. In other words, we are to support each other on the journey.

By the way, have I ever mentioned my like of The Who as well?

 Peace and grace. Reed

A couple was traveling in their R.V. as the approached Waxahachie. The husband said, “I wonder how they pronounce the name of this town?” They thought it could be WAX ahachie waxAHAchie or even waxahaCHIE. Well, they stopped to get a bite to eat. The wife said to the kid behind the counter, “We don’t know where we are so could you tell us and pronounce it slowly for us.?” The kid told her, “Well, we call it Burrrrrger Kiiingg.”

It’s so easy to be misunderstood.

 I know you may have had those times in your life. You thought you were asking the right question or thought you were answering the right question. Then when things don’t go well, you wonder why.

Looking at Jesus 2000 or so years later, it seems perfectly clear to us or does it? After all, was Jesus fully human and much like us? If so , then we speculate just how far that goes. Did He have a family? Some scholars seem to want to suggest He may have.

 Or was He fully God with us? If so then how can we kill God even on a cross? Some hold that He was and that He was somewhat trapped by the mortal body and became fully realized after the Resurrection.

Or, was He both human and fully so and God and fully so? There seems to be plenty to suggest that that was the case.

You see, it is not an easy subject to explain. And don’t even get me started on what He said. A single parable could take a couple of years to fully understand.

The important thing is to continue to struggle with how you perceive Him. It’s kind of like the couple in  WaxaBurgerKinghachie. It really doesn’t matter whether or not you fully understand, what is important is that you continue on the journey and wherever you are, try and learn and share with others.

Peace and Grace. Reed

Continuing from last week, we are talking about the church and our sense of Christianity.  When we become members of a church, we promise to commit ourselves to something greater than we are. In our case, we Methodists promise to pray, worship, give and give of ourselves.

 I think we probably have two of those down pretty well. Given we have probelems in life, I think we pray from time to time.  And if we come, we do tend to give something to the collection plate.  However, if there were one area I wish more of us paid more attention to it would actually be the latter area: giving of ourselves. Our faith is always incomplete until we commit time and energy to mission at some level.

In the survey that I pointed to last week from Baylor University, those people who attend mega-churches have a higher level of mission giving and time than those who belong to smaller churches. It would seem to be the opposite but it isn’t. Those who belopng to larger churches actually do more for the kingdom.

I would add that that is the reason that they belong to a larger and grwoing church.  You see, they invite others to come to their church to join them on mission teams, etc. They touch others who come to the church out of gratitude.  It’s a two way street. They go out to oether and others come to them as a result.

So, again I ask you to look at your own life. Are you in fact giving time and effort to others who need you? An hour or two is all it takes. After all, the one you change will not be the one you help. It may well be you.

 Peace and Grace. Reed