a praise chorus

The past few days it’s been beautiful; one of those mid-winter lulls in coldness that make you say “Oh yeah. That’s what warm weather feels like.” And then you miss the warm weather, terribly.

Wednesday night the boys found a practice space (hallelujah!), and later Dan and I chilled around the Dixon family fire pit with stomachs full of Mom’s french fries. Certainly another perfect evening. “Cat Scratch Fever” came on the radio and I said “Who is this again?” and Mom goes “Ted Nugent,” immediately. Amazing.

I’ve been getting some random things done lately, like mending buttons, and painting nails, organizing my sewing supplies, and researching whether you should use butter or margarine (the verdict is soft, non-trans-fat margarine — google it and the responses are overwhelmingly in favor of margarine). I went to the fabric store down the street from my office and was dismayed to find that they got rid of all that lovely toile they had a few months ago.

I kept seeing these “unfulfilled.org” billboards around town, and I thought “Hm, sounds Christian. I’ll bet it’s a clever ploy to get people to look at a faith-based site without scaring them away immediately,” and I was right. The site is actually very nice, and probably a great resource of basic information to introduce the faith.

It got me thinking about how difficult it is to share your faith, particularly with the people that you know the best and love the most. As far as sharing it with strangers goes, though, this is an interesting new method: billboards printed with a URL. A lot of people write in to the forums giving encouragement and testimonies, and some people write in mouthing off (about the Church of course, not Jesus) way more than they would in public, to someone’s face. It’s interesting because it gives the people who really have questions about it an outlet. People who truly don’t care would just visit the site, go “oh, I get it” and close their browser. The ones who go in seeking dialog, even if angry, are sure to get it. In one long thread that I read, the guy who runs the site responds to each insult-laden paragraph from one person with just kindness and more explanation. Sometimes I hear references to “push” vs. “pull” ministry tactics, and here’s a pull strategy in action. This guy is doing exactly what he’s been commanded to, and exactly what anyone would do when given a gift to share: simply offering it up for the taking, and offering help and conversation as well. If the gift itself doesn’t keep someone on the site and asking questions by their own volition, there is no weird, self-serving effort to push the message after them. Maybe it’s a little tacky, but it’s not those scary people that yell at Art Walk attendees.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I love the people around me. More specifically, how I show them that love. Actions, not just words, I hope. But how do I do things for people without seeming like I’m being condescending or self-satisfied? Are people able to see that I’m being genuine and do things because I love them, and not because I expect something out of it or want to mark “do something nice” off my list for that day? I think that just because of our culture, people doing nice things for free is often a suspicious enterprise. When it happens to me, honestly I have the impulse to go “what’s the catch?”  I guess the key is probably just consistency.  I might be suspicious of someone bending over backwards for me once, but after they’ve shown simple kindnesses to me several times, I begin to accept it as their nature.  I’m lucky to have some great examples around me of this kind of living.  As a naturally prideful person (thanks Dad), it’s like a constant uphill battle to put others first.  But I am working on it.

Anyway, just some things I’ve been thinking about.