Father's Day

Father's Day, being Sunday, we went to church. Gonna talk mostly about that, but Steve got to pick where we were eating, he chose Freddy's. YAY!!! Unhealthy food, chocolate shake for dessert. Then three of his four daughters were over for the afternoon and one granddaughter. He finished the day with a 12 mile recovery long run. And lots of carbs for supper. Father's Day is for the dads, but Steve said something to me that is forever going to make this one of my favorite holidays.

And now, I want to tell you about Father's Day service at church. It was hot, and it was outside. But, we started a sermon series in Daniel titled "Tough".

It started with a bike rally in the church parking lot. There were booths selling biker stuff (sorry, don't know the correct term) spray on tattoos, and free ice cream, hamburgers, hot dogs, water, tea, and 4 different classes of bikes to vote on in the bike show. I would guess well over 100 bikes. It was really cool.

Lots of leather and facial hair. The service ended with a version of On Christ the Solid Rock with real rappers and people break dancing in front of the stage. It might seem odd to see break dancing and rappers at the same party with bikers getting along, but when I saw the biker break dancing I just had to laugh.

The sermon was good, how can the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego not be good? "The bunny, the bunny, oh I love the bunny, I don't love my mom or my dad just the bunny". (If you don't get this, you need to watch Veggie Tales.)
The pastor ended with the plan of salvation and made the comment "your past and your present don't matter, you need to take care of your future."

This comes after I've spent a couple of months thinking about our present. We all love a good healing and restoration story. We all love the "God changed my life" story. I have found out that some friends love being your friend and saying they are your friend and being okay with your past. But when your present gets ugly they bail on you. I'm fortunate to have friends that will "get dirty" in my present with me. I've even had one that thanked me for trusting her enough to confide in her during my ugly times. That's rare.

I want to be the friend that says I don't care about your past. I don't care about your present. I'm concerned for your future. Let's forgive your past, work through your present and live for the future. Grace is for our past sins, our current sins and our future sins. It's not a one time use coupon. And if God's grace and forgiveness covers all my "stuff", then I want to be one that can love you through your "stuff." There is nothing that is so devastating as hitting rock bottom and then having people you thought would lift you up ignore you. I won't be that person.