Welcome to Burger Church

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I haven't blogged in a while and I'm not quite sure why Blogger is putting automatic link's in my post, but just ignore them, they are advertisements. Carry on...


"Hi! Welcome to Burger Church where we do church your way. How can I help you today?"
"Ummm, I don't see what I want on your menu board."
"Tell me what you're looking for and I'll see if I can help you."
"I want my church experience to be a lot of fun to listen to with a side of Jesus."
"Oh, you want the number 20. Would you like to biggie size your Jesus?"
"No. That's why I didn't order the number 1. A small side of Jesus is just fine."
"We will do our best. Have a seat and we'll bring your order to you."


"Hi! Welcome to Burger Church where we do church your way. How can I help you today?" 
"Yeah... I'd like... a number... 22 and hold the life-change."
"OK, so you want a comfortable seat and a teacher that's easy to block out. Would you like to add some stagnation to that?"
"Sure, why not. Does that mean I have to put more money in the plate when it's passed?"
"Nope. You can do what you've always done and allow your emotions to control your wallet. Have a seat and we'll bring your order to you."


"Hi! Welcome to Burger Church where we do church your way. How can I help you today?" 
"Give me a number 46."
"Hmmm, that's a tricky one. Only have an organ played, no colored lights, and only the hymns on the left hand side from pages 1-20 containing the word tradition?"
"Yes, that's the one. And can you add a side of don't sit in my seat?"
"We will give it the ol' college try. Thank you for your order."


"Hi! Welcome to Burger Church where we do church your way. How can I help you today?"
"I would like Burger Church to be full of people who only wear their Sunday best according to my standards."
"Well, we can't control who we let walk through our doors, but if you like, you could volunteer to judge them as they pass by and then talk about it with your friends over a donut."
"But if I volunteer to do that then I won't hear the sermon. What good is coming to Burger Church if I don't hear the sermon. Someone else will just have to volunteer."



"Hi! Welcome to Burger Church where we do church your way. How can I help you today?"
"You have stuff for kids, right?!"
"Would you like the DayCare children's church or the Teach'EmALessonWithFlannelGraph children's church."
"Ugh. Just take my kids, feed them, clean them up and hand me the right diaper bag when I come back for them." 
"DayCare it is then. You go through those doors to drop off the babies and those doors over there to drop off your elementary student."
"Why can't they all just go in the same room, I'm running late."
"Is that green snot coming out of your two year old?"
"Uh, no. He has allergies. Heh. You said through those doors, right?"


The church is not a building you come to, to have your every need or want met. The people are the church. And if the church looks like the dialogue above, they can count me out. Since when did being a follower of Jesus become all about me. Nothing Jesus ever did was about him. It was about us, all the people of the world. So if the Bible says that we should be who we are, but allowing Jesus to live through us, then nothing about this life should be focused on us alone. 


We should be going out to our communities and showing the love of Jesus and the hope He gives just by doing what we are passionate about and including others in it. I'm not saying that we should not meet together as Jesus followers. What I am saying is that church is not a place to give your order, expect perfection (in your opinion), and then loudly proclaim how disgruntled you are when it's not exactly the way you want it.


Quit your complaining and be the doggone church.

My Mom

Picture taken of my mom & my daughter on a "Girls Road Trip" to PA.

It's not Mother's Day, it's not her birthday, but today she made me smile. So I thought I would take a few moments and jot down some of the things I like about my mom.

Air Smooches

When this photo was taken my son, C was 12. I remember trying to freeze this moment in my memory. He chose the spot and how we would stand. I loved that moment. He's almost 13 now and I could fill a book with all the wonderful qualities this budding young man possesses. You can see it on his face. Strong, confident, secure, loving. What you see is what you get. He wears his emotions and thoughts out there in the open. And at this point in time he's still not tainted enough by the world that he hides who he is. I hope he never loses that.

He still comes to me for hugs every morning. He'll even reach over and put his hand on my shoulder when we're driving somewhere. He comes up behind me when I'm cooking and wraps those long arms around my waist for a quick squeeze. When I'm keeping score for his baseball team, he'll walk over to the fence, lace his fingers through the chain link on top of mine and ask me the score or what inning we're in. Even walking through parking lots, he'll sidle up beside me and grab my hand. He definitely shows his love openly.

This morning when I was dropping him off at school he saw one of his buddies. "Look mom, there's Mikah!", he said excitedly. As I came to a stop he whipped out of the van, flung his back pack on, slammed the door and jogged away toward his friend. When I was about to pull away I heard him yell, "MOM!" I looked back just as he sent me an air smooch "... LOVE YOU!"

Awww C... I love you too buddy.

Vegas

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I recently took a 3 day trip to Las Vegas. I had been there before with my husband, but this time I went with my bff. It's great to just get away with your best friend no matter where you go, but the electric energy of Vegas kept us going and we had a really great time together. Below are just some random thoughts from different points in my trip.

Flights

• People on planes who take up their seat plus 2/3 of yours should be required to pay for 2 seats or my massage the following day to unlock my "S" shaped spine from sitting like a contortionist for an hour and a half.
• Four hours strapped in a seat requires more than an all natural stress reliever. Sedate Me!!
• Flying by myself makes me feel like singing Elton John's Rocket Man.
• You don't need to be in an accident to get whiplash. Just watch the people around you sleeping on the plane.
• Flight attendants asking me if I want cookies or pretzels with my water makes me feel like I'm back in pre-school. And that makes me smile.
• Breathing Basil Oil* on a plane is frowned upon by some. "Sir, I promise you, this is not an illegal substance."

Shopping

• When staying in Vegas, a 24-hour bus pass is worth its weight in gold.
• When shopping on vacation, be sure to ask the people who know you best if you are making a heinous mistake when purchasing a hat. By the way... I'm still loving mine :)
• $900 for a scarf is unacceptable.
• I must have an accent. People kept asking me if I was Canadian.

Drinking

• "Bring me something fun" is a great way to order a drink. By the time dinner was served, there were 8 more "something funs" peppered down the length of the table and I was deemed brilliant. Brilliant but sober, I didn't even make a dent in it.
• There's always one of these in each group- the obnoxious person who drinks excessively and becomes monumentally obnoxious. Then there's the one who drinks too much and throws up down the front of her dress while waiting for the show to start but is too drunk to realize she should leave so the rest of us don't have to smell her nastiness. Sorry... was that last one too specific.

Personal

• People in Vegas don't stare at my hair. There's more entertaining things to look at.
• Sitting, drinking coffee, and watching life is a delectable way to spend a morning.
• I saw an elderly woman with spunky hair, a great top and black leather pants sitting in the same open air cafe as me. When she stood up to throw away her trash, she had white velcro athletic shoes, oxygen tubes and a walker. This is a possible glimpse of me in 40 years- minus the oxygen :)
• Sitting at a vanity to apply make-up makes me feel pampered.
• A lighted, magnifying  facial mirror should not be made available to people over the age of 35. BAD!
• P.F. Chang's Kung Pao Shrimp is still a good idea at 3:00am.
• Making people in the service industry smile is an art form best left to those people who have charm, not those who are naturally offensive.
• I love that human creation can bring me to tears by the sheer beauty.
• BFF's don't require a lot to have the time of their lives.
• I appreciate more fully the relationship that has grown over the years between my husband and I. Love, respect, understanding, honesty & transparency.

It was a wonderful trip with amazing sites and awesome times of interaction. I made new friends and reconnected with old ones. I missed my husband and my kids and was greeted with hugs, kisses and flowers. I'm still catching up on sleep and getting back in the swing of things a little more slowly than I anticipated. I guess that's what it's all about in Vegas... go till your legs fall off and you can't keep your eyes open. You can always sleep at home. I am presently signing off to take a delicious nap :)

*Basil Oil- Basil essential oil is a natural antibacterial. Take a folded tissue and tap out some of the oil on the tissue. Put it in a snack size zip top plastic storage bag. When you are on the plane, pull it out and inhale deeply through your nose, hold the breath as long as you can and then exhale slowly through your mouth. Do this as often as you like. The essence of the oil will cleanse your nasal passages and the air in your lungs. This is also a good idea to do each time you return to your hotel room from being in large crowds. This practice has kept me from getting sick on any trip that has required plane travel where you are forced to breathe recycled air.

Restored Beauty

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So I was re-reading tonight some bits of the bible that I had touched on a few days ago. For those of you who read the bible, you will understand the idea that you can read a passage and have it mean something to you that time and then read that same passage another time and it can speak to you in a completely different way. 

And that is where I am finding myself. 

This certain section of Isaiah meant nothing out of the ordinary to me 36 hours ago, but today, after the internal struggles I've been through, this passage is larger than life.

"O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
I will build you with stones of turquoise,
your foundations with sapphires.
I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates of sparkling jewels,
and all your walls of precious stones."
-Isaiah 54:11-12

What could this possibly do for me?  How could this archaic ramble be relevant in my day to day?

I have had some storms. Some big storms. Where I didn't feel comforted in the slightest. I felt completely alone. I felt I had no one to turn to. And when I did reach out for help, I was dismissed, pushed aside, not valued. I was afflicted. I was distressed with mental pain and greatly troubled. Damage was done. Deep.

But this... this tells me that He will rebuild ALL that was destroyed and make it beautiful. He will rebuild my self-esteem and make me feel majestic. He will fix the cracks in my heart and my love will be exquisite. Those harsh words I speak to myself because they were spoken to me, He will replace them with words that are loving and divine. The body that I have been given and wreaked havoc on, not respected, not loved, pushed aside... somehow, He will make it beautiful and precious.

And maybe God has already done some of these things in me. I believe He has started the work of rebuilding some of what was destroyed. I can see where he is bringing beauty from the ashes. But I think the bigger step for me is to stop looking at myself through the scars and start looking at myself through His eyes. Because He loves me. He sees me through the eyes of Jesus who IS love. I want to see what God sees. And maybe if I see what God sees, then maybe... just maybe, I will value the creation he calls Reena.

Maybe I will care about what I put in my body the same way I care about what my kids eat. Maybe I will care that I am active enough so that my body is working in a healthy way, the same way I care for my kids activity levels. Maybe I will speak encouraging words to my heart.

I want to see what God sees. Yeah, that's what I want. Because when He looks at me, he shakes his head, smiles and says "Man, I love that extraordinary woman." That's what I want to see.

Tree of Irritation

Pretend there's a tree in my front yard.

This tree has been here since before I owned the house. In fact, when I moved in, the previous owner told me that the tree had been there since he bought the house and that was a full 40 years. This tree has been around a good while. But there's a problem. It doesn't grow. It never gets any taller or thicker. It does not leaf out in the spring, it does not exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen and it does not produce any kind of fruit. It doesn't perform any of the tasks a tree is supposed to perform. And yet... it remains in my yard, highly visible for all to see.

Each day I leave my house, I see this tree that does not live up to its potential and I find myself starting the day irritated. There must be something this tree needs so that it can grow, thrive, flourish. I need this tree to see in itself what its possibilities are. So I decide to make a concerted effort to talk to the tree, invest time in it by pulling weeds, making sure the soil is just right, giving it living rain water instead of chemically treated water, researching exactly the right kind of food it needs to really take off. I have set aside my irritation with the idea that if I work with this tree, it will begin to function as a working part of my yard. I will give it the love and time it needs so that it will see that I value it and that it can be a part of a really great yard that others will want to visit and maybe grow in the same way.

Everything is lined up. I have crossed every "T" and dotted every "I" so this tree has the best chance of not only growing, leafing out, exchanging gases and producing fruit, but becoming beautiful as well. But as I spend time with the tree, giving it everything it needs I notice that it's still not growing, still not changing. It is still irritating me that the conditions are optimal for growth and it's not happening.

You see, the tree has existed all these years in the same state. It grew to a certain point and then stopped. It was content with being small. It had no reason to get bigger. It had no desire to entertain the new idea of leafing and producing fruit. It had no desire to learn how to take a gas that can suffocate and turn it into life giving air for those around it. In fact, the tree took more time and energy than it ever gave back.

There comes a time in life when it can become necessary to yank out this life-sucking, time-sucking, non-fruit-producing, irritating tree. Give it the freedom to find another yard to be stagnant and toxic in. My energy is better spent with the trees and plants that want to grow, that are open to new ways of growing and readily entertain the idea that how they've always been shown to grow may have worked in the past, but time brings new intelligence, new understanding and if my plants are open to me helping them, they have the ability to reach their full potential along with all the other plants.

I need to do some time investing and pruning and plucking and nourishing and talking and loving. I need to make sure that the things in my life, regardless of how long they've been there, are the things that will help me reach my full potential and hopefully I'll bring others who are willing along with me.

Young Like

I  have wondered about this day, off and on for 12 years. My son is in the very early stages of having a girlfriend and this is all new territory for me.

You see, when I was growing up I was different than he is. I was backward, shy, quiet, disheveled. I was the kid that wore cast off clothes and wreaked of my dad's cigarette smoke. I had a few people that I spoke to at school, but no close friends. Things started to change a little when I hit middle school. I started to take a more vested interest in my appearance . But feelings of inferiority run deep, so I kept quiet all the way through graduation. I had my first boyfriend/relationship when I was 19 years old.

It wasn't that I didn't want a boyfriend, boys just didn't look at me that way. And you know what, I missed all the drama the other girls went through. I didn't have the back stabbing, the tears, the "I can't walk down this hallway during 6th period because he'll be there" junk. My ideas of what it would be like to have a boyfriend were way better than real life anyway.

So there is a young lady at school that has been waving at my son at lunch for the past 2 weeks. We'll call her "J". Last Friday my little guy attended his first 6th grade dance. It was all very innocent, after school from 3-5pm. No time for kids to go home, change, put make-up on or get into mischief after dark. They simply left their last class, threw stuff in their lockers and paraded to the gym. In short order "J" had sent "the messenger" to see if he liked her. He responded in the affirmative and from what I understand, for the rest of the dance he would walk past her and wave and she would walk past him and wave. It's now Monday and according to his friends and her friends, she's his girlfriend.

Really... that's how it works?

At this point, he is still asking a lot of questions. Which is hilarious, because I have no idea how middle school relationship are done. But, I'm staying calm, telling him to treat "J" like he would want a boy to treat his little sister, and if they want to talk outside of school he has to be the one to call her. No girls calling the house. And it has to be their home phone, not her cell phone. I want her mom knowing that her daughter is being phoned by a young man. Oh... and hands off. No public display of affection permitted. They have strict rules at school and he could end up in detention for holding her hand. Which works really well to my benefit because he's petrified of detention. I'm going to ride that train as far as it will go :)

I need to prepare myself that my "little romantic" could get his heart broken. But, I'm glad at this point, that he is keeping a level head and not mentioning the word, love. He likes "J". And I can live with young like.

It Was A Very Good Day

I have just come off a couple tough weeks. And the old adage of "if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all" was put into full effect. Work was stressful, changing my schedule around to accommodate the back-to-school switch, work was stressful, a family member by marriage died at a young age in a motorcycle accident, work was stressful, I had 2 migraines in close proximity, did I mention work was stressful.

So sometimes you just have to post something because it was good. It has no value to anyone but me, it is not a recipe, it is not something about my kids, it is not a restaurant critique, it has nothing to do with health & wellness. This is simply the log of a very good day with some commentary. A very good day that was needed in so many ways.

1. I got up on time. (I got up on time because I went to bed early. Maybe this should be a regular practice for me.)
2. I got my son to school early. (He forgot something he needed a signature on in his locker. I refused to drive him back to school to get it and told him to come up with another plan. His plan= go all "MacGyver" on JMMS, sneak upstairs, quietly open his locker, sneak back downstairs and out the side door where the get-away van would be waiting so I could sign the paper before it self-destructed. Sweet.)
3. I got home with enough time to fix & eat breakfast with my daughter. Yum.
4. Got my daughter to school on time.
5. Met a sweet friend for "Coffee Talk." (We talked about everything and nothing. Those are the best.)
6. Came home and did some laundry.
7. Went and got my haircut. (This was wonderful. I had to cancel my previous appointment due to a scheduling conflict and I was more than a week and a half overdo. It felt great to be pampered by someone who is an artist and loves her craft.)
8. Came home, made broccoli salad to go with dinner, did more laundry, washed the inside of my van windows (we had puppy sat for my in-laws back in June and I had never taken the time to clean off the doggy nose prints. I felt like a new woman!)
9. Picked up my son from school, and spent time going over spelling words in the van waiting for my daughter to come out from her school.
10. Picked up my daughter from school.
11. Fed my family a healthy dinner.
12. Dropped my son off at football practice.
13. Took my daughter to cheer practice.
14. Coached my squad in a new cheer and they participated in the choreography. (They have such creative minds, excitement and good ideas. Adults should really take the time to listen more.)
15. Came home, did more laundry.
16. Kissed my husband.
17. Prayed with and put my freshly showered children to bed.
18. Checked the happenings of facebook.
19. Blogged.

There wasn't any one thing that was spectacular. But is was a day off work, time with a friend, chores accomplished, pampering, seeing my cheer squad, loving my family.

Easy Jesus

Have you ever used a can of Easy Cheese?

More on that later.

A while back I was listening to a teaching where one of my pastors was talking about some missionaries from my church. They hadn't always been missionaries. They were just like us. They met, got married, held jobs, bought a home, had a child, raised a child and so on. And yet they came to a point in their lives where they took Jesus at his word.

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Mark 10:21

Really? They actually, literally, with wild abandon took Jesus at his word. They sold everything they had and went to Haiti to be missionaries, to reach out to the people of that nation that were hurting and shared Jesus' love with them. Their sacrifice was huge by our standards, heck, by any standard. But that certain phrase my pastor said was what stuck with me. That phrase... took Jesus at his word. How many times have I read the Bible? Countless. There are over 600 commands. Did you know that? There aren't just 10, there are 613 commands. And yet my life is not radically different than it was 5 years ago. But I have read these commands. I have read the word's of Jesus. Why haven't I taken Jesus at his word?

As an American I lead a comfortable life. I am accustomed to it. It is part of my culture. And when I am not comfortable, I complain. And if I don't outwardly complain, I certainly do a good job of complaining on the inside. So when I take the time to read the Bible, and I read a command like "sell everything you have and follow me" I don't take Jesus at his word, I adapt it to fit my comfortable life. Certainly God doesn't want all of us to sell our things and give it to the poor. Then we would be poor and the poor would be rich and what good could come from that. It's just a role reversal. He must want me to interpret this so it fits my life. Ummmmm, let's see... Jesus wants me tooooo... sell out to the idea of giving everything I have (time, energy, a little bit of my money (because I don't have much to spare), etc.) to the poor aaand... follow God the best I can in my given circumstance. Yep, that sounds OK. Now how can I make that fit into my schedule of being a wife, mom & employee?

Back to the Easy Cheese. Easy Cheese is a processed, chemically altered food product that is extruded from a metal can onto any surface with the idea that it will be consumed. What's really neat about the end of the can is that it has this tip that can make pretty star shapes if you position it just right over a cracker when you squeeze. And if you don't want the star pattern, you can make swirls, zig-zags, polka dots, smiley faces, etc. You can squeeze out cheese to fit any cracker, veggie, trail bologna, sandwich bread, you name it, the possibilities with Easy Cheese are endless. But if you really take cheese back to it's original roots, it wasn't meant to be expelled from a can. It was made from a natural source, animal milk and naturally occurring bacteria. But factory-made cheese overtook traditional cheesemaking in the World War II era, and factories have been the source of most cheese in America and Europe ever since. Today, Americans buy more processed cheese than "real", factory-made or not.

And so with most things, I sacrifice what is good and right, in an attempt to make my life easier. And so I have this Easy Jesus. Where I take his Words in their purest form, read them, and then squeeze them out to fit my life. This season of life is shaped like this particular brand of cracker, so I'll just squeeze my Easy Jesus and what I learned about him this week so he fits into where I am and what I'm doing. Or I'll hear a really good teaching and I'll squeeze my Easy Jesus into a star shape so I remember that one for hopefully longer than the others. But another fact about Easy Cheese... when you get to the place where the can is almost empty it gets more difficult to squeeze the cheese out. It can even leave a nice dent in your finger from pushing on the point so firmly to get that last bit of cheese.

That's kind of where I am now. I have been dispensing my Easy Jesus for so long that I have this dent in my life and I feel like I'm coming to the end of this phase and it's getting harder to read the Bible and not take God at his word. And I don't know what that looks like for me, but I can definitely say that it probably won't be comfortable, it won't be safe (by my standards) and it won't be easy. It's getting harder to squeeze my Easy Jesus each week and I think it's time to get rid of the canned crap that I've been selling myself for years and go back to what He originally wanted to do with me. He wants me to "Love one another".

As I am learning more about what love is, I see that it can take on more forms than I thought possible. And with all of the needs out in my community, surely I can find a unique way to love. Something that reflects what I have learned and not used. And then I won't have to worry about squeezing my Jesus to fit my circumstance. I'll just let him take me back to my natural state and form me into this amazing person that can be molded by Him and aged to the point where my "Love one another" is a wonderful aroma to him. Because even the stinky cheeses can smell good to some people. So while I'm trying to figure this life out, without my canned Jesus, I might stink up the joint with my attempts.

Do you think God uses a clothes pin on his nose when we mess up?