Why? Why does this happen?

As parents we are consumed with taking care of our kids. That takes on different faces as we go through life and the children get older. Kids have ups and downs. Sometimes their downs include injuries. Skinned knees, bumped heads, cuts, scrapes and even broken bones can occur with kids being kids. No one did anything wrong per se; it just turned out that the child was injured. It happens. However, there is cause and effect that goes with those aforementioned "boo boo's".

As well as "boo boo's", there are illness' that pop-up occasionally. We nurse them through the cold and fevers and rashes and life goes on.

CANCER?!?!

But, why? Why this child? Why did this happen to us? WHY?

Recently some friends of mine was told that most likely the "knot" on their child's head was cancerous. Ten months old with no other health issues. Boom! What a blow.

I want to be careful to not make this about this one family, but it is what made me start thinking about writing this.

As Christians, we talk about God's love and mercy and grace being unlimited. It is. But no where in Scripture does it say that our lives, even as Christians, will be problem free. Leaning on the strength of God during tough times is what makes the difference in Christians and non-Christians. Besides, Christians have each other to lean on as well. Just think, a whole church congregation coming together and praying for one family as well as supporting their physical needs. Phenomenal! I also think about the lives that have been touched by Christians going through tough times and how they responded. When a doctor or nurse see a family receiving strength from the presence God and being supported by their Christian friends it has a huge impact on their lives as well. There is also the times that a person is diagnosed with a disease and all at once the disease is gone. When there is no medical / scientific reason for a disease to suddenly disappear, it gives one a since of amazement and wonder. God has the power and ability to immediately and completely heal any disease He chooses.

I am not implying that any of this makes ALL the hurt go away. It is difficult to see your child suffer. However, I do find comfort in the fact that God Himself saw His Son suffer and made a way for all of us to spend eternity in a place that has no suffering...Heaven!

At some point, I find myself questioning God. You know what? He can handle the question. You are not going to offend God to simply ask why. You may find that as that dialog begins, you have more answers than you thought would. You may find that you become closer to God than you were. You may find that you have more faith than you did yesterday. You may find that God actually reveals to you the WHY.

I say all that to say this. God is God and I am not. His ways are higher than my ways. I trust Him even in the hard times. I pray that you also will trust Him in your hard times.

Boys will be boys!

This past Saturday (Sept. 17, 2011), FBC Summit held the third annual Girl / Boy Day. There is a whole other conversation about what we could or should call it but like I said, that is another conversation. The point is, we did it / do it.

The premise is very simple. Get 1st - 6th grade girls and boys together and have a fun with them.

We take the boys to a place on the creek and turn them loose. Yep. Just tell them where the boundaries are and watch them play. We  saw boys bury each other in the sand. They skipped rocks. A couple even tried their hand at fishing! (no luck) Then, we built a fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. It almost sounds too simple. No books to buy. No expensive supplies to round up. Just buy some snacks and gather some wood and off you go.  Men hanging out with younger men. This could start something!

The girls were a little more expensive but then again they always are. Sorry girls. It's the truth!

We had some ladies in the church put together a spa day. They painted nails, fixed hair and pampered the girls with their company. They also had a chance to talk about manners, setting the table and modesty in fashion. WOW! what a concept! Ladies spending time with the girls in our church? Almost sounds biblical, doesn't it? Kind of reminds me of that Lois and Eunice thing in 2 Timothy.

Here is my point. You don't have to have a huge facility or expensive gadgets to minister to kids. The old adage found in parenting classes that discusses quantity versus quality is true in kids ministry (kidmin). It takes both. You need to spend valueable time (quality) and plenty of it (quantity) with your kids.

I also think there is value in the children building relationships with adults in church away from the confines of the sanctuary. Let them see you being a real person, living life. Let them know that you are not a stuffed shirt that just tells them not to run inside and stop yelling.

KidMin is fun if you let it be. Demanding? No Doubt!! But a boat load of fun.

Have fun with the kids. Do off the wall stuff with them. Let them see youaway from church, but still praising God in the process.

You know what they say about hindsight...

This past weekend (Sept. 4, 2011), our church (FBC Summit, MS) made the decision to not have church due to inclement weather predicted. Tropical Storm Lee was peppering our area with heavy rain, flash floods, and tornadoes. All of this had produced power outages and trees down in roadways. As a church staff, we communicated with each other throughout the day Saturday and decided to cancel Sunday activities at the church. When we awoke Sunday morning...you guessed it. The weather was not so bad.

Did we make a mistake? Should we have had church?

The old saying, "Hindsight is 20/20", certianly held true here, but I don't believe we made a mistake.

Given the information we had Saturday afternoon, we made a decision. So, I am glad the weather was not as bad as predicted. I am sad that we missed an opportunity to worship together. All to say, given the same information in the future, I will vote to cancel services.

In our lifetime, we will all make decisions that we look back on and think, "Why did I do that?" But given the circumstances and information at hand, we must make decisions and move forward. When you look back and recount the "shoulda, coulda, woulda" you are doing so with a whole set of information that was not available before the incident. Most would agree that that is not a fair comparison. Whether it is a decision to cancel church services or whether to take a new job or whatever, make a decision based  on the current information and move forward.

Side bar: Utilize any and all information available to influence your decision. We consulted the Emergency Management Agency, National Weather Service as well as personal observation before making the call to cancel services.  

News Flash! When you are involved in ministry, you will probably never please everyone.

So making a "big" decision is as simple as PEAS:

1. Pray about it. (Can be a simple "Lord help me make wise decsions")
2. Evaluate it. (From as many angles as possible)
3. Announce your decision.  (Let others know what you've decided)
4. Stick to your decision. (Defend your decision but don't dwell on it)

Beating yourself up over what could have been probably accounts for more heartburn than bad pizza. Learn from your past. Remember what you've learned. Move on!