Like most, I enjoy my birthday. I usually get some cool things. When I was younger I used to get the newest video games, the hottest basketball gear (ok, maybe I still got some OKC Thunder stuff this year) and other really sweet stuff.
Over the last several years I have been in a slow transition from getting gifts like the ones I mentioned above to more "adult" gifts. You know, tools, books, an occasional dress shirt or nicer, non-basketball shoes.
I'm not going to lie, it's probably time. I think my wife, Mackenzie, has had a large influence during this transition, which is a good thing. Otherwise I might still be having birthday cakes with Karl Malone and Chris Webber on them, instead of a cookie cake with "Happy Birthday" written on it.
This years birthday was great, like all, but had a little twist to it that birthdays in years past did not have.
The Friday before my birthday, which was Sunday, I was at the mission with one of our interns and seven of the neighborhood kids. We were doing what we do every Friday by going to two local Walmarts and picking up several hundred pounds of produce, frozen meats and breads.
We then continued with our normal activities by distributing these food donations throughout the neighborhood. Door to door we went and as we completed each block we continued to add more and more kids to the mix. By the end of our neighborhood, food distribution we had gathered well over fifteen kids and several more had come and gone. There was a curious mix of kids this morning.
Once we had successfully handed out all of the food throughout the neighborhood I told everyone helping that we had no additional donation pickups for the day and that we were done for the day.
So, I parked the van and trailer and headed over to Rock Island to lock it up for the day. Here's what I walked in to...
This was by far the best surprise birthday I have ever been given. The two girls pictured above (Jessica in the purple...errr, pink and Lizzy in the green, black and white) are primarily responsible for organizing this whole thing. They communicated with all the kids in the neighborhood, which I must say is a task in and of itself, and prepared this very special day for me with the help of some others.
I recently heard @ScottWilliams talk about church diversity, or, the lack thereof. He talked about how Sunday, the day most Americans meet for 'church', is the most segregated day of the week. He's right. We have our white churches, our black churches, our mexican churches and so on and so on.
He went on to give a very humorous, yet accurate, statement about today's church. He said the Kingdom of God looks more like the makeup of people in a Walmart and less like today's church. Kinda burns, huh?
Sometimes when people come to Cross & Crown they ask my dad where he goes to church. He tells them he's at church. They try rewording it another time. He knows what they're asking. They want to know where he attends on Sunday mornings. He goes on to explain how at Cross & Crown we do church every day. We meet together, we share together, we worship together and it seems like God continues to add to our gathering pretty consistently (Acts 2:44-47).
One of my favorite parts about doing church every day at Cross & Crown is that whether your red, yellow, black or white (or any other color or mixture of colors) we are what the Kingdom of God looks like as a community of believers.
When I look back at the pictures from my surprise party I think it gives me a very small glimpse of what that Kingdom will look like.
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