Movies with elemenatry kids, tight-rope walkers, and deep-fried goodness!

             Ahh... a relaxing Sunday evening at Lemonjello's... :) Its been a pretty good week, not too much to complain about! Right now I'm working on finding a ride to the Detroit airport this friday, I'm heading way down south to Guatemala for a missions trip I get to lead worship for and be a part of. I'm starting to get really excited for that! I actually met a guy at a church I visited today whose dad used to live right by the main area we will be at for a while. Pretty sweet stuff! I'll have to throw some pictures up when I get back.


             This last Friday I got to hang out with a bunch of kids from the tutoring program to just have some fun! We usually do an activity night once a month as a "good behavior reward night" for the kids who have been doing their homework and staying out of trouble. So, this time around we had a movie night. There isn't much quite like lumping together twenty-something elementary and jr. high kids with a ton of popcorn and a couple animated flicks. We watched "Space Chimps" and "Cloudy, With a Chance of Meatballs" (If you are thinking about checking out either of them, I would definitely go for the meatballs...) Other than the fact that I think we will be picking popcorn out of the couch cushions for a month or so, it was a blast!

              Last night I was out at my church, the Edge Urban Fellowship, I had a couple guys from the mission come along with me. Pastor Troy was talking about dealing with doubt. It was a great reminder of God's faithfulness and how we need to just step out and move when God is calling us to do something, even if we cant see Him moving at the present moment. Sometimes we let our 'thinking' get in the way of what God wants to do with us. 

             

              I heard an analogy recently on that subject that really struck home with me. It was about a tight-rope walker who set his rope up in the middle of town and did a bunch of awesome tricks as he walked back and forth; striking awe into everyone's eyes as they watched the death-defying miraculous feats he was able to perform. As the tight rope walker continued, his crowd of followers grew. Eventually, the tight-roper looked out over the crowd and asked: "How many of you believe I can walk across this tight rope while pushing a wheelbarrow?" the crowd of people excitedly cheered and yelled "We believe you can do it!" After the roaring crowd quieted down, the man then asked, "Since you all believe I can do it, then I need one of you to volunteer to get in the wheelbarrow" As you can probably imagine, no one volunteered...

The question to be asked is how often do we see this happen in our own lives? We hear stories of awesome things that God has done. We read about them in the Bible, send them in email forwards; we even sing songs at the top of our lungs about how great God is and how he can do the impossible. But; when it comes time for us to take some risk and get in the wheelbarrow, we don't tend to be so excited... I challenge you to think of what areas in your life God may be asking you to hop in His wheelbarrow... He's promised to take care and push us across; all we need to do is hop in for the ride. Will you step out in faith and embrace the awesome potential of what might lie ahead? or will you quietly dissipate and shroud away in the backdrop of the crowd?
              
             
              On the way back from the Edge we found this sweet little convenience store/deep fried joint and got some spicy garlic perch! That place was awesome, they had just about everything you would want to fry sitting out in a deli window, all battered up, just waiting for someone to come along and eat it! Fortunately, last night that someone was me :) I'm a little bummed I'm gonna have to miss the next five Saturday nights of church, my weekend schedule is pretty packed with music stuff for the next month, which IS a good thing :) it just means I will be missing all my people at the Edge for a bit :(