so here i am utilizing youtube because we are somewhat limited right now in how we can present videos on our website. and we have this really awesome video that 'advertises' our upcoming series called purity in a polluted world.
so here's this video sitting on our front page of the website for all the world to see, or at the very least visible to the congregation i attend, my fellow staffers, and my senior pastor. and after this great, cool, clean video draws to an end, up pops these 'related' videos. which weren't that great or cool or even related. and were the very antithesis of clean.
suffice it to say they are part of the polluted world out of which we need purity.
i got a call from my communications director and jumped online to get something on the front page while i sought a solution. after scouring the community help pages, there it was - six blessed characters that would keep me from getting a phone call from the pastor's wife: &rel=0
it means after the video plays, it will not search for any 'related' videos.
muuuuuuch better.
i love you &rel=0. you keep me out of trouble, sane, and pure in a polluted world. i think i might hug you.
charletains on the home page
a cup for flowers
i was at a friend's house last friday getting caught up on each other's lives. her kids were outside playing and her daughter came in asking if she could get a cup. we asked what it was for and she said she wanted to collect flowers in it. so my friend got up to get one for her. and her daughter's face widened and brightened into a ginormous smile, she jumped up and down, clapped her hands and said "a cup for flowers - yay!!" when it was placed into her hands she ran out the door, giddy with delight.
my friend and i looked at each other and together said, "wow".
a cup for flowers. that is all her daughter wanted. and she started to celebrate right in front of us when she realized she would get it.
we talked about that for a while because it really moved us. we forget to celebrate the little things. we've lost our delight over the simple. and all it took was a child, ferocious at play, to remind us of it.
i want to be a person who isn't so busy, or isn't so consumed with business, or who doesn't have the time to stop and smell the cup of flowers. i want to catch the excitement over something i've chalked up to mundane. i want to feel alive over the seemingly insignificant things of God's creation.
i have a feeling that when we truly put God first, the lens He provides for us to look through captures this stuff. our hearts are more in tune with the pleasures that are all around us that we've lost sight of.
i want to fill up a cup with flowers and marvel at how fun it is and how pretty they are and how something so simple can be so delightful. and i want to remember how God has a purpose for even those little flowers, and how much more of a purpose He may have for those of us He calls His own children.
a cup for flowers - yay!!
the seat of faith
on monday, in lieu of our staff meeting and potluck, we went on a prayer tour. at 11:15 we loaded onto a yellow school bus with our sack lunches, found our seats and settled in with our 3eMcKinney prayer tour booklet that took us through some tough areas of mckinney as well as highlighted some great programs that are in place to serve those less fortunate than ourselves. the booklet also described different ways of taking the prayer tour - we were in for the drive-by-prayer adventure.
we listened to larry (3e's exec director) narrate our trip, as we bumped along through parts of mckinney i had never seen, in fact didn't even know existed. it was eye-opening to see what happens right under our noses and yet escape our attention every day.
it was an incredible opportunity to learn more about as well as pray for our community. it made me want to step it up in service because i believe in all the things 3e and other organizations are trying to do to help.
when we stopped to let one our staff out for a bathroom run (i will not squeal on her by giving up a name!! and besides when we stopped quite a few others took advantage of bathroom availability) i snapped a photo of the rest of us.
the really cool thing was that i noticed there were names above all the seats and so of course i immediately turned to see what name was over mine. it was faith. and it dawned on me, "i'm in the seat of faith".
my friend chris snapped a photo of me holding up my prayer book next to faith's name.
while we are in the middle of our series on faith, it was a great reminder that having the kind of faith you read about in hebrews 11, is the same kind of faith i can have. those are ordinary people, and so am i. extraordinary faith is possible for even me.
i love that God brought that to my attention and that He wants me in the seat of faith.