Bold Leadership | Packing The Parachute

How do we define a bold leader? Some one who is willing to say things that are controversial, someone who is unafraid of what his contemporaries think, someone who pushes the edge when it comes to traditional thinking?

It does take boldness to do these things, but in the end any or all of these things could still be about the pastor or leader. What if leadership boldness is something altogether? What if the true test of boldness in a leader is his ability to let go?

I’ve never been able to make the idea of skydiving work in my brain. It seems crazy to jump out of a perfectly good plane. Let’s take crazy and bold and make them the same thing for a couple of minutes. It’s not bold to take skydiving classes, to buy the gear or go up in the plane. It’s not even bold to hang on to the little bar outside of the plane’s door right before you jump, you could always go back inside of the plane. It’s bold when you let go. The only way you can be that bold is because of a very important principle I call “Packing the Parachute.” The boldness to let go at 50,000 feet isn’t rash or impromptu, it’s calculated, focused and prepared for. Packing the Parachute is the difference between bold and stupid, which are always pretty close.

In leadership it’s the same thing. We aren’t bold because we are willing to try new ideas to make our entities more successful. That metric could differ according to how you define success – monetarily or attendees or some other goal. Bold isn't making decisions that help you hold on to people and/or success.

Bold is being able to let go when the time is right. There is a difference between a church splitting and a church multiplying. The first is a negative response to a deficiency (usually in relationships) and the second is a planned outcome that serves the Kingdom.

I have more on this that I mapped out as illustrations. I'm having a hard time articulating it, though. I'll post as I am able to make it make sense.

Movember | Newsletter

"Movember."
I know, I didn't spell that right, but after the whirlwind that October was I can't imagine any of us standing still. I was privileged to be able to attend two very impacting conferences. Catalyst (Atlanta, GA) and Inferno (Auburn Hills, MI), both excellent conferences that have incredible effectiveness in their respective demographics. Catalyst is a leadership conference focused on business leaders, pastors and ministry workers. Inferno is a spiritual conference that is a call to young men and women to impact their world. Incredible stuff that won't matter beyond the people who attended unless we move it out of the leader's hands and into the hands of the people we lead, that's what this month's theme is, Movember.

Tim Rutledge @ Inferno...
If you didn't make it to Inferno this year you owe it to yourself and the people who are following you to get a hold of the message preached by Tim Rutledge at the Friday night session. Once you hear it, you'll want to get your youth, staff and leadership teams together and spend an hour to rethink who we are as the church and what we're supposed to be doing.

Tim spoke about Jesus Christ being the bread of life. The reason Jesus chose to compare himself to bread was because bread is for everybody all of the time. Rich people eat bread, poor people eat bread.

One of his strongest points was that we make heaven and hell issues out of a whole lot of things, but we miss the most important one, doing what God called the Church to do. I can't really go into much detail without affecting the way you will receive the message. Suffice it to say that it changed my thought process about what I am doing as a leader in the Kingdom.

Visit www.TheApostolicChurch.com
or Call 248.373.4500 ext. 228 and order your DVD from Larry.

Incredible! This package of materials is a phenomenal investment. Go the website (which is loaded down with awesome information and materials) to order it or to get more information.

The literature, messages, teaching and preaching are fresh, relevant and applicable to any leader working at any capacity in God's kingdom. The sessions that impacted me the most were Jim Collins, Seth Godin and Dave Ramsey.



Are we wasting our time with these conferences?

Should we continue to attend these conferences? Let's face it, if we were so inclined and had the finances we could attend a good conference every day, a great conference once a week, and a phenomenal "life changing" conference once a month and not change anything on the home front.

If you're like me you don't typically walk away from these meetings empty handed, right? We buy materials that for the most part end up on the pastor or leader's bookshelf. Convenient fodder for us to pull snippets from so our congregants will think we are gurus that have a direct connection to God and His infinite wisdom. Unfortunately most of this wealth of materials is wasted because we're afraid that if we shared it, the people would get a glimpse behind the wizard's curtain and realize that we're just little men with microphones and we didn't come up with all of that impressive material after all.

I had one pastor swear me to secrecy before he showed me a website with great teaching materials on it because he was afraid somebody else would get it and preach it, or maybe because he "kind of" made it seem like he came up with it. ;) If I can insert this here without being offensive, "What the heck?" Sorry.

"Then Paul went to the synagogue and preached boldly for the next three months, arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God. But some became stubborn, rejecting his message and publicly speaking against the Way. So Paul left the synagogue and took the believers with him. Then he held daily discussions at the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for the next two years, so that people throughout the province of Asia—both Jews and Greeks—heard the word of the Lord.
Acts 19:8-10 NLT emphasis added.

Paul stayed in one place for two years and all of Asia heard the word of the Lord? Paul didn't speak to all of Asia, he couldn't have, he was at the lecture hall. Asia heard the word of the Lord because the people that came heard what was said and took it back to people and those people took it to others, etc., etc. What if they did what is so commonly done and sat on the information?

Maybe we should make a vow not to attend one more conference until we share every bit of literature and information we've gathered with the people we are privileged to lead. Hmmmm.

All of these materials are wasted if we don't find some avenue to disseminate this information. For your group it may be during your weekly general session. This doesn't work too well, though because you'll have to generalize the teaching to be able to "spread it out" to connect with the different levels of people present. Click here to view two ideas that I am presently employing to get information to the right people so they can in turn spread it further and move the kingdom forward.

Site Redesign...

Updated the site and blog with a new design. I like it, I think.

On Faithfulness (Audio)

On Faithfulness...

I was asked to speak on Sunday morning to the adult class on the subject of faithfulness. Here are the notes. I'll be posting the audio later on Mundhaus.com.

On Faithfulness:

Two statements that are true:

1. Faithful has nothing to do with God.

Faithful simply means consistency. “He’s faithful” could as easily be said, “Trust him to do that.”

2. Every man is faithful.

Men are “faithful” to what they are persuaded is the best thing.

Two questions worth asking:

1. Is what we have to offer enough to persuade a man to pursue it?

2. What do we (the church) have to offer and are we caught up in pursuit of it?

Paul wrote a letter to Timothy in the New Testament:

And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. 2 Tim. 2:2

In this verse the word faithful is from the Greek “pistos” which means:

1) trusty, faithful

a) of persons who show themselves faithful in the transaction of business, the execution of commands, or the discharge of official duties

b) one who kept his plighted faith, worthy of trust

c) that can be relied on.

Interestingly the word “pistos” is a variation of the word “peithō” which means persuade.

Paul instructed Timothy to find faithful men and tell them what he had heard of Paul that could be confirmed by witnesses.

“You tell them about me, Timothy. Tell them about who I serve and what it has cost me. Tell them about my shipwrecks and beatings, tell them about my visions and the near death experiences I’ve had because of this message that has wrecked my life and secured my eternity. Tell them I have stood before kings and sung hymns at midnight in the darkest dungeons. Tell them I have seen miracles and that God has opened up the heavens and shown me things I can’t even talk about. And then you invite them to be a part of it, challenge them Timothy, to walk away from mediocrity, to give their all for Christ. Let them know it won’t be free if they do it right. Give them the names of the other martyrs who’ve already given their all and of those who were with me and can collaborate every one of these events. Lay all of the cards on the table, Timothy, don’t try to make it pretty, and of the willing ones, find those who won’t be satisfied to just know these things, but who will look for others who they can instruct also.”

Of course Jesus Christ is implicit in his story. Paul had come away blinded by a face to face encounter with Him. He had led a life of adventure, hardship, betrayal, and revelation. He was a living martyr, his name already listed among a company of men and women who had died violently, who had been persuaded that his whole life would be consumed in the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the death.

Now, at the end of his amazing life, he was instructing Timothy to seek out faithful men, men who were persuaded about something, men who were committed and consumed by something. For us, the American church, it’s easy to think that Paul meant he should look around the church for men who attended faithfully and gave their tithes and offerings. But…

1. Faithful has nothing to do with God.

Faithful simply means consistency. “He’s faithful” could as easily be said, “Trust him to do that.”

There are people who have committed everything to an idea or a lifestyle that they are persuaded is the best thing for them or their families that have not been introduced to Christ yet. These people are all around us, everyday, in all walks of life. They are faithful to their concept. They are doctors, lawyers, students, gang members, alcoholics, drug addicts, atheists, among others. Some are respected some are despised. Some live in mansions others live in government projects. Some are lawmakers others are troublemakers. Some have devoted themselves to saving lives and others wouldn’t hesitate to take yours.

There are gang members that would follow their leader to death because that man or woman has totally given themselves to their concept. They have the harrowing stories that they share with their followers, they have the respect and admiration of others because they live the life outside of the meetings. Many of them would kill or even die for the name of their gang, for their neighborhood, for the color of their skin, for their other gang members. They are persuaded by an idea that for them is a reality.

What do we have that is so compelling that it would arrest these people, capture their hearts and imaginations and change their minds? If you were to sit down with these men and women and share your story with them would it be so convincing? What has our passion cost us? These men and women have mortgaged their lives to pursue their concept. How real is this thing we have?

What are we calling them to?

Are we calling them to this building, to become a part of this group? When they came would they find the same intensity and passion in us that they would find in their own life? Are you consumed in the pursuit? Have you been persuaded that this is so fulfilling and compelling that nothing else matters?

Or have we narrowed it down so much that it isn’t so compelling?

In the subsequent verses he uses three natural examples of faithfulness: soldier, athlete, and farmer.

A soldier must focus on his mission so he can excel. (Integrity)
An athlete must know the rules of the game so he can win. (Knowledge)

A farmer must work the field so he can eat. (Discipline)

Then he says, “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.”

Soldier: Integrity… Persuaded that his mission is worth everything.

No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of [this] life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. 2Ti 2:4

Why are we here? I don’t mean here in this building on a Sunday, I mean here on this planet in God’s kingdom. We should ask ourselves everyday: Is what I am doing fulfilling the mission that God has given me? Do I know what that mission is? To what degree has this mission consumed me?

Athlete: Knowledge… Persuaded to learn.

And if a man also strive for masteries, [yet] is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. 2Ti 2:5

We must know. Jesus said truth would make us free. We need to know what God’s kingdom is about. How does it work? Knowing the rules of the Olympic wrestling that were common in Roman times mattered as much as strength and skill. You could master your opponent and still miss the crown if you broke the rules.

“Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”

1 Cor. 9:24-27 NLT

Farmer: Discipline…. Persuaded to do.

The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. 2Ti 2:6

If the farmer is going to see a harvest he must plant. He can have silos full of seed, barns full of equipment and all of the best intentions but somewhere, sometime that man must walk out of his comfort and break the ground. In Paul’s day that man would have to commit to days of hard, back breaking labor. He would yoke the oxen, plow up the field, push holes into the ground, push seed into that ground and then he would wait. He would pray for rain. He would wait. He would go out and dig up the weeds that came up so much easier than his crops. He would have to fight off the birds and animals that would come to try to steal his harvest. When the crops finally matured he would have the even greater task of bringing the harvest in, of threshing it and breaking away the stems and chaff. Then one day he would sit at a table with his family, and with rough calloused hands he would bow his head and give thanks for what God had done. He knew that every bit of his effort would be of no value without the blessing of God, but the blessing itself would simply take up space in the silo or rot in the field if he wasn’t persuaded to do the work of the farmer.

Jesus life, death and resurrection were a beautifully orchestrated declaration of the love of God. His life was a blazing adventure, focused on His mission, that ended in a violent death that included kings and priests. He was executed in one of the most brutal and horrifying methods known to man. He was publicly shamed and humiliated with no mercy without a verifiable cause, but with a purpose. He knew that He had mastered satan in the desert but the rules said His blood while it coursed through His veins would save no one. He didn’t spill it, He poured it out. His resurrection was designed to give men a vision of His power over death.

Jesus had resurrected and showed Himself to His disciples, but Thomas was not there. He couldn’t be persuaded to believe until he saw for himself.

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust [it] into my side: and be not faithless (apistos), but believing (pistos). Jhn 20:27 KJV

History says that the Apostle Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church there.

King Agrippa heard the Gospel message but wasn’t persuaded to follow Christ.

“Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest (peitho) me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.” Acts 26:28-29

Every man is faithful. The difference is to what they are faithful.

If they are going to give their life to something, they will need to be persuaded that it is worth pursuing.

March 23, 1775

Excerpts of a speech by Patrick Henry

“No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at the truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation.

There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free--if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight!

There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extentuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Patrick Henry was persuaded that the idea of liberty was so compelling that he would risk his life to attain it.

Martin Luther was convinced that men should have access to the word of God and under threat of death translated the scriptures into common German from Latin.

William Wilberforce risked his entire political career and was physically consumed by a passion to end the slave trade in Britain.

Unknown numbers of men and women risked everything to end slavery in America by hiding runaways and helping them get to free states.

Courageous families with nothing to gain risked everything to hide Jews from the Nazi party, saving them from terrible deaths.

We could stand here all day with example after example of people who were consumed by a passion so great they risked it all or we could fall on our faces before God and ask Him to stir us, to compel us and consume us. That He would kindle something in us that would drive us out of this building our comfort zones into the field around us and we would empty our silos of seed and plant it in the brokenness and that we would work to bring in the harvest that is already ripe on the stalks, faithfully, no matter the cost.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:35-39

Hello From Spain

"This is an older blog/message that God gave me. Our 18twentysix group is reading through my book, Smudges and they'll be reading this chapter tomorrow. This was a long journey."


I think I’m beginning to understand why you and I have such a hard time understanding Jesus.

I briefly lived in Spain as a child. My dad worked on offshore oil rigs so we traveled the globe and lived in many foreign countries. While living in Spain, I think I was around two or so, I pulled a pot of boiling water off of the stove and burned my chest and abdomen. I still have slight traces of the scar.

I don’t remember that incident, only the scars bear testimony, but growing up I always remembered Spain as a picture. The picture that I got of Spain (even now, it comes to mind) was of a penguin floating on a chunk of ice with an igloo and a sail on it. That was my image of Spain, what I believed with all of my heart and in all sincerity Spain was. It really never wavered and I never really questioned it. I just always believed it. I sketched the image, here’s what it looks like in my head:

That was it, and in school we learned about Spain and its conquests and wars and still the image remained. Some things just become part of the background image of your mind, you know, not anything that you think of consciously, just your own reality.

I was 23 when my wife and I had our first son. We were working in the church nursery and I was sitting on the floor, digging through a plastic toy box looking for a book to read to the kids. I uncovered a book about a penguin named Pablo that hated the cold and wanted to move to a tropical climate. So he cut off his little chunk of the iceberg and floated away. Right there, sitting cross legged on the floor of a little nursery with toddlers screaming and laughing and playing with toys that make entirely too much noise, I found Spain. It just hit me. Bam! All of my life I had carried this image, and right there in full color in an old Disney book I stumbled across my “truth”. I call it my truth because I owned it. Nobody else that I know of thought Spain was a chunk of ice floating in the ocean, just me. My mother had purchased me this book while we lived there. I don’t remember the pain of the boiling water or any of the landscape, just Pablo on his little chunk of ice.

What does this have to do with you and me understanding Jesus? Everything. You see, we have these ideas and images in our heads that we’ve picked up along the way. Some of them are close, some of them are not so close and some of them are as absurd as thinking Spain is a chunk of ice in the ocean with a penguin and an igloo, but they’re our “truth,” our reality. The problem, though, is that we never question, we never ask, we just believe and we never open the book that has the real truth about what we believe (or think we do).

And it’s not that we actually “believe” these things, not on a conscious level, but they color our perception. It’s like filtering pure water through a dirty dish rag. I can see the floaties, but I put them there, and my parents put them there, and this religion that I have been such a part of has put them there. And we drink deeply of the tainted water, and clench our teeth and squint as the grit scratches through our system.

The saddest part though is when the world sees us trying to drink it. Our “truth” seems as tough to swallow as the bitter swill the world has handed them. So why change?

There comes a time, though, when Truth, as a person, steps into our lives. It’s usually unexpected and sometimes a bit disturbing when He shows up and unravels our perceptions. The Jews were looking for an Elegant King and He strode in as a peasant, dirty feet and scruffy beard with a bunch of liars, thieves and whores. They looked for a Crushing Crusader to come in and conquer the world and found a bloody lamb, broken and naked, hanging from a criminal’s cross exposed to the world in shame. They couldn’t conceive it, couldn’t stomach it, it didn’t match the picture in their mind. They had a choice, simply choose to believe or not. Some did, a few, but most didn’t.

I’ve heard so many messages by preachers that have scoffed at and even vilified those Jews. Pointing at them in derision, mocking their lack of faith and understanding, “How could they not see the “truth” right there in front of them? I would have to ask the same question, but not of those men and women in His day, but of my own contemporaries.

How do we know so much and represent Christ so poorly? How can we take the blood of Jesus and His act of sheer grace and strain it through our dirty dish rag of religion. How can we take the beauty of the Gospel and taint with prejudice and pride and politics?

I participated in a local prayer event in my city that had little impact on the lives of the men and women that we were supposed to be praying for. In fact, the water was strained through so many layers of racism, political agendas, and self-righteousness until it was barely even palatable for those of us who claimed Christianity, much less for the world.

When will we see the body of Christ in its proper position, on its knees, towel wrapped around its waist, with an empty pitcher and a basin full of muddy water from the world’s dirty feet instead of standing with our hammer and bloody sickle of self righteousness and prejudice?

My wife said I sound like I’m mad at the church, that we’re not all like that, sometimes we just don’t know. There are a lot of us that when we’ve tried to face truth it just hurts too much, because truth makes us examine not only ourselves, but it makes us examine those around us. Then we look at people that we have put on pedestals and we realize that in their ignorance they have misled us. And sometimes it’s easier and safer to just not ask why, because it’s too scary.

She’s right, except I’m not really mad at the church, just frustrated, because our images are so far off sometimes, and not even that, but more that we don’t seek Him before we start displaying them so proudly. We don’t really compare them to anything substantial. We just draw them, frame them, hang them and expect the world to rave about them and flock to us, but secretly we don’t even like them ourselves. We are just afraid of the blank spaces.

We scorn the evolutionist, we despise the humanist, we are angry at the world for tempting us and luring us away from our sacred images, from our “truth” and then we scorn each other, despising other “denominations” and we become angry at anyone that would dare challenge the authenticity of our belief system.

The Latin root for the word religion can be traced back to the word “relegare” which means to “tie fast.” Not fast in the sense of quick, but in the sense of securely. Religion is tying yourself securely to an idea or principle, especially in regard to a deity, that’s why we have such a hard time understanding Jesus, because He came to a group of people bound to their religious laws and man made ideas and cut the cord. He wasn’t safe, he didn’t show proper appreciation for the elaborate beauty of their religious image.

He was not like the law, though He created it, He came close and embraced us, unclean, impure, untouchable, with His passion because He was truth and grace.

Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is the compassion of Christ overcoming the justice of God.

Luke 15:20 – Grace is the fervent heart of the broken hearted father running to embrace His son, simply because of his compassion.

Grace pursues us because it is the very heart of God. Grace walks through the crowd of self-righteous people yelling unclean at you and touches you.

Grace is unthinkable, unexplainable, unfair and undeniable. It’s obscene and horrible and beautiful and wonderful.

"Cornelius Plantinaga, Jr., assures us that we can never arrive at any definition of grace without sin as our point of departure. Cheap grace, he says, trivialize the cross of Christ. How can we avert our eyes from a cross drenched in holy blood? It was for sin that God, clothed in flesh, writhed in agony on our behalf. It was for iniquity; for wickedness; for every manner of wretched, despicable evil that He submitted to the beating and humiliation and finally the obscenity of death itself. Grace can only shine in its ultimate brightness because it emerges from ultimate darkness."*

Grace doesn’t overlook sin, it looks past it through the blood.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

Romans 3:21

*From Captured By Grace by David Jeremiah

Early Spring Morning Blossoms

Aaaah... Spring is in the Air...

Apologies are good...

I don't know if you ever read an article I read called "The Day I Killed Joe" if not you can read it by clicking here. In the article I mention a youth group in Illinois that I visited and was very harsh and rude to. Last night I was sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Springfield, Illinois (we're here for our annual youth convention) and three vans pulled up with West Monroe Apostolic Church printed on the side.

This was the group. Well, not the actual group because they would all be much older now, but I thought there might be at least one person from that group that I could apologize to for my rude behavior a decade ago. I talked to a guy named Mike Tripp and he was a part of the youth group then. Of course, he didn't even remember that I was there, but I apologized anyway.

I feel better now, thank you.

Rich Mullins...

Revival Photos...

Fear.

I came across this great video clip online. It's set to a U2 song. It's very well done.

Mother Teresa

I watched this movie about the life of Mother Teresa. If we could spend our lives, not spend as in spending time, but spend as in spending money, what would we have bought?

One of my friends saw the DVD in my back pack and kind of scoffed. You know, she was a Catholic nun, and all, so I guess my friend thought it was silly for me to think anything about her, I guess. But the truth is I know so many people who claim to be "Christians" that as a whole don't do Christian things.

I was inspired and shamed by this movie. You should watch it.

Things you could learn from a homeless man.

Last night I got home from meeting with 18twentysix at Denny's. (I like having church at Denny's, people look at you funny. Oh, and I like sausage.)

Anyway, it was like 10:30 pm and my wife didn't have a work uniform so I made a quick trip over to the laundromat. As I pulled into the parking lot I saw a man sitting on the bench outside. It was cold so he sat huddled up in his overcoat with his hood up.

As I walked by him he didn't look up. Once inside I found out that the change machine wouldn't accept the new $10.00 bill that I had so I ran across the street to buy a package of Sweetmint Orbit gum (I'm kind of hooked on that flavor right now) and get some change. When I got back to the laundromat the man had come inside and sat quietly huddled on the seat next to the change machine. I made change and turned to walk over to a washing machine. He looked up and said, "It's gonna be a good night tonight."

"Oh," I said, "Why do you say that?"

"I don't know," he replied in all sincerity, "I just got a good feeling."

That was it. I thought, here's a guy that is hoping to stay in this shabby 24 hour laundromat because he has nowhere else to go that is warm and sheltered. He probably doesn't have much money if any at all and he's looking forward to a "good night".

It just really struck me that he could be so optimistically confident and so, well, thankful. That was it, that's what struck the cord, he was thankful for the simple fact that he had a warm dry place to sit and be still, to feel somewhat safe and look forward to a little bit of rest.

It made me feel so selfish and unthankful for the incredible, incredible blessings I have. Last month was a little tight (and we spent too much on Christmas) so I had been fretting about that and here's a guy that is looking forward to a good night as a homeless man.

Yesterday my friend bought my lunch for me and so I ran back to the store and bought the guy a sandwich and some water. I figured if he was hoping for a good night I could, from my abundance, be a part of the goodness.

He looked up as I walked back across the parking lot, smoke hung in the air between us from his hand rolled cigarette, and his eyes lit up, or should I say his whole face lit up. He reached up and took the bag like I was handing him a million bucks. "Thank you, sir and God bless you."

His name is Alvin. I asked him and he told me, "Alvin, you know like the chipmunks," as he smiled.

Be safe, Alvin, and I hope you stay warm. Thank you for reminding me about being thankful.