A New Week...and I'm Glad

Well, last week was a long week in some ways and very short in others.  It was one of those weeks that it is really hard to pause and take a moment to write something meaningful.  Most of my thoughts last week centered around two things.  First, a woman I work with has a daughter that doesn't live with her and a couple of weeks ago she attempted suicide.  Last week, she took some drugs at school that could have done the same thing.  It was a hard week at work for her and I caught myself engaging in her situation more than at other times.  

Second, early voting.  The stories of 2000 people per hour voting and then me maybe standing in one of those long lines...do I or don't I?  I didn't.  I didn't and don't want to write about the election again either.

That brings me to today - a Monday where I have been posting some of the funny videos I have found lately.  However, today I am energized by something that I want to share with you.  Yesterday morning, we went to "church."  It was not church the way most of you did church or most of you may think about church.  In the past couple of months, we have done "church" at the YMCA, in Galveston homes wrecked by Ike, and in Dickinson backyards removing trees.  Yesterday, we were the Church at the Clear Lake Lanes.  Four families and their kids met at the bowling alley, showed off some incredibly humbling bowling ability and shared some rich conversations.  We had long-timers and newcomers.  After we played together, we went to a new burger joint called Mooyah and broke bread together.  All together it was one of the most fun experiences of being the Church that I have had.  Jase and Ashley, I'm glad you made it.  Craig and Andrea, thank you for not rubbing in the Baylor loss to your huskers, and Renee and Nicholas...you always make me laugh.  My family had a place to belong and a place to play yesterday.

Some may say that we are just playing and not doing anything "significant," but I would argue that in the very act of "just playing" we just might be doing something very significant.  You see all of us that were at that bowling alley today have very busy lives and are pushing ourselves to the limits.  By taking a morning to relax and go have fun together, we just might be offering one of the most significant things we can to each other - the opportunity to exhale.

A man named Lyle Schaller, who has studied churches for years, said at the turn of the century, "The biggest challenge for the church at the opening of the 21st century is to develop a solution to the discontinuity and fragmentation of the American lifestyle."  Our lives as families are spent trying to go in all the necessary directions all the time.  In most cases church just becomes one more thing that pulls at us.  At the Springs, we want to be part of the solution here.  We could go ahead and program out your spiritual life too and then call you lax for not doing everything we tell you that you should, but that's not our M.O..  We want to help you be the church where you live, work and play.  We want to help people bring their whole lives under the alignment of a relationship with Jesus.  It's not compartmentalized...and it's definitely not wrapped up in our programmed activities.  I am so glad that my new friends came bowling with us because I would have not been able to have the same conversations at the YMCA with them.  We did not discuss the details of premillenialism or dispensationalism, but we did talk about our real lives.  And we'll be together again next week, too...if not sooner!

West Texas "Starbucks"

Five days in Snyder, Texas and I finally find my oasis in the desert.  I have located the small cup-o-joe establishment called "The Manhattan."  I love this place.  It's got art on the walls, it's on the town square, it's got a front porch with cable-spool tables and yard chairs, great music and great coffee-drinks.  It's got a local flair about it, but it could be in the arts district of Houston or the family-friendly downtown of Fort Worth.

I'm sitting and working a little and lo and behold a friend walks in and sits down and we share a conversation for about 30 minutes.  She leaves and I think to myself, "What a great third place!"  

"Third Places" are those middle-ground, neutral locations (not work and not home) where people have traditional gathered to converse and share thoughts and ideas about life, family, work and even spirituality.  They seem to be more available in larger populated areas, rather than rural communities.  I guess that is because they may not sustain the customer volume that is needed to maintain the business end.  For instance, i've been here working for almost 2 hours now and I have only seen about 10 people come into the shop.  At home, I see 10 people in Starbucks every 8 minutes.  It's just a volume issue.

I actually think I like the Manhattan better than Starbucks though.  It's a community place.  It's a neighborhood place, run by neighborhood people.  I feel at home with the urban feel when I'm inside, but I loved sitting on the porch gazing at the courthouse and seeing the 4x4 trucks pass by, as well as the painted store windows supporting the local Snyder Tiger football team.  Oh, how fresh.

IKE UPDATE:  I am going to be in Snyder for another 4 days, it looks like.  Not because I can't get into my house, but because I can't fly back to Houston with Graysen yet.  Rhonda and Garin are at my parents' home about an hour away from us.  We apparently have a little bit of shingle damage on our house, but that's it.  Our electricity is back on.  Rhonda is planning to go walk-through the house to see how it made it on the inside, but all indications are that we came through unscathed.  We may all be separated, but we are all safe.  Thanks to all of you who have texted or called to check on us.  We are blessed to have friends like you.