Thanksgiving Gravy

Thanksgiving Gravy

When I was growing up Thanksgiving was a time with more food than anyone should ever have on one table.  I guess it is that way for many.  Most of the time it was also a time to meet new people.  Don’t even tell my mom that you were not going home for Thanksgiving and were going to eat alone at your house.   Her motto is  "More the Merrier!"

Then after the meal was finished, there were the others that were to be served.  We would fix a few plates for home delivery.  There was the widower that ran the shoe store.  He would be at work in his shoe store.   The store was closed but we would call and tell him we were on our way.  He would let us in and  thank us for the food.  There were the shut in couples that simply were not able to leave their house.  It was not unusual for me to have to sing a few bars of a favorite hymn or song for them as the delivery was made. 

But what I remember the most was the gravy.

Mandy makes fun of me and my gravies.  You see there were two kinds of gravy in my life—White and Thanksgiving.  

Biscuits and gravy were the special breakfast treat.  They came.  You never ordered them.  Breakfast for me as a child was never ordered.  It was on the table. The special breakfast was the biscuits (most of the time not homemade) and that West Texas white milk and flour gravy.  The only function the biscuits had was to make the gravy available.  Topped with as much pepper as one could stand, I thought that surely heaven had arrived.  I have a pact with my dad.  Should a day come where he does not know this world but cannot escape it, give him biscuits and gravy as much as possible!

Thanksgiving gravy is not a fancy gravy at all.  In fact, Mandy laughs at me when I gloat over it.   I think it is a can of cream of chicken soup with a few additives.  The specialness of it was that it only arrived twice a year—Thanksgiving and Christmas.    It is the topping for the dressing.  Again the function of the dressing was only to make the gravy better!

It seems to me that the world forgets the simple pleasures that just arrive on a special day in a certain context.  As I grow older, I am learning that most of the great things in life are not really expensive and cannot even be bought.  They simply arrive at special times with special people surrounding them.

Today is Thanksgiving.  May your world be filled with memories of the gravy in life.  In the turmoil of our world, may we give thanks for those who help create and give the gift of simple things.  Maybe life is not as complicated as we make it.

Pray for me as I pray for you.

In the Master’s Name,

Dr. M. Jack O’Dell

www.midweekmanna.com

www.stlukesimpson.org

What Bread Are We Offering?

Is there a correlation between football team's losses and church attendance?

Attendance at worship can discourage a pastor.  The competition for Sunday morning is rampant!  This past Sunday there was the mom/scout camp out.  Then let us not forget the opening weekend of Duck season--and the continuation of deer season.  And are there other seasons?  Oh yeah let's not forget soccer.  There are more kids on the soccer fields on Sunday morning than there are in Sunday School.  

In Louisiana there is also the loss factor that seemingly affects worship patterns.  Pastors notice that when the favorite team (LSU, Saints, etc) loses, the discouragement of the loss seems to keep parishioners away from worship.   The Sundays that follow a win there is energy and eagerness to tell the story of the win.  However, when the disappointment settles in, worship seems to be a distant thing. 

One fan apparently put the frustration in words, "If God is not going to give us a good quarterback, then I am not going to spend my time with God!"   There is a disconnect between a value in life and the one that gives meaning and value.  Now before you chuckle, realize that some folks value their team winning.  It is not just a game.  It is more than a game.  But what does that mean?

click here to see how sports can become more than we think!

Perhaps it means that we as the church have lost our ability to make disciples to transform the world.  We have simply become another fan base.  Maybe it means that somehow we as the church have not offered the bread of life.  Maybe we have served snacks much like the concessions of the game.  Maybe the concessions of the game have become more filling than the offering of our worship.

Or maybe we have lost the balm of Gilead?  Gilead, that region east of the Jordan river, where Jeremiah told the people of Israel of the mysterious healing perfume of the terebinth tree.  Jerry (I am sure those close to him called him Jerry!) would point towards them towards the healing made available by God in their presence.  Have we as the church lost the ability to give healing words to those who suffer great losses in their life?  Do we offer them the empty words of another season without compassion?  Our worship void of healing has left the world licking their wounds at home or at other places.

There is a turning point in Jesus' ministry where many were leaving him.  He turned to those closest to him and said, "Will you also leave?"  Peter answered,  "Where would we go?  You are the eternal life."  John 6:67  Peter was saying to Jesus that following Jesus was the bread of life. 

When the good bread is baked, cooked, and served the whole room and meal are transformed.  It's aroma fills the room.  Maybe that is what happens in the best of worship that no one would think of missing. What if we began to really serve the bread of life!  Can the church offer such bread in our worship?

What bread are we serving?

Pray for me as I pray for you.

In the Master's Name,

Dr. M. Jack O'Dell

www.midweekmanna.com
www.stlukesimpson.org    

Better or Bitter?

Life happens to all of us.  Jesus gave us the reality of it when he said, "It rains on the just and the unjust."  For some it is being in the wrong place at the right time.  For others it is a consequence of poor choice or bad judgement.  Sometimes it is the best choice in the worst of situations.  

As life happens our reality becomes a new reality.  You can try to deny the new reality but eventually it catches up with you.  Life is never constant.  You are either moving forward or backward.  It is an illusion that you are standing still.  The earth is always moving whether you feel it or not.

It is sad when one becomes consumed with bitterness.  The river of bitterness runs rampant in many lives.  You have heard bitterness.  Perhaps you remember the taste of bitterness in your world.  It is cynicism.  It is anger.  It is frustration. Many times it is a victim mentality.  Someone did or continues to do something to me.  Remember that people can only abuse you as much as you allow them to do so.  You do have some power in the game.     

The biggest problem with bitterness is that it consumes more energy than we like to admit.  In order for the fountain of bitterness to run we have to continually drink from it.  In life's limited amount of energy, bitterness can consume our thoughts and our speech.  It becomes our focus.  It becomes our poison.  

I have a close friend that every conversation held with him is nothing but bitterness.  There is little or no awareness of "kairos" time---time that is filled with meaning.  All of the conversation is "chronos"--counting days until this time passes.  It is difficult to even have a conversation with this person.  This person has imprisoned himself!  He alone must choose to get better. 

I use the analogy of hitting one's finger with a hammer.  It is a pain that most of us have known in our life.   It wounds us.  It causes us to shout out.  It makes us think the next time we have a hammer in our hand.  With bitterness, the hammer is IN our hand.  We are the one that keeps hitting our own finger with the hammer WE are holding!   We like to think someone else is doing this but the reality is that our thoughts are the force behind the hammer.

Bitterness keeps us from intimacy and happiness.

So what is the other choice?  We can change our thoughts to get better.  When we change our thoughts, our feelings will change over time.  Once our thoughts are changed and our feelings are adapting to the new thoughts, our behavior changes.  It begins in the mind!

Getting better is a slow process sometimes.  It requires us to think good thoughts again and again until our feelings and behavior change.  Getting better does not deny the reality of loss and pain in life but invites us to get our the umbrella when life rains on us.  Getting better is making a decision to put down the hammer.  Getting better is re-framing life.  Re frame that which is past.  Re frame from that which is harmful.  It is forwarding thinking. It makes note of what one learned from the pain and agony of life.  Life is not over.  I have the ability using the image of God within me to be creative.  

For many getting better is getting OFF the pity pot--"Woe is me!" (It is okay to sit there for just a while!)  For some getting better is realizing that one is really among the fortunate of the world.  For most getting better is creating new friendships that help us combat isolation and loneliness.  Getting better connects us to purpose and meaning in life's relationships.

It is a choice to be bitter or better.  The invitation of Jesus is always to be better!

Pray for me as I pray for you.

In the Master's Name,

Dr. M. Jack O'Dell

www.midweekmanna.com

www.stlukesimpson.org

Winner or Loser?

So the election season is over.  Well most of it is over.  I am one that believes that if there is a run off that it should be held the NEXT week.  I can hear the universal groan when we are faced with another month of election rhetoric.  

Winners and Losers.    That is how we usually frame elections.  Somebody won and somebody else lost.  The Losers will fade into the background shortly after they are demonized.  The winners will take center stage and be given their opportunity to make a difference.

It is kind of interesting to note that Jesus won the popular vote of his time.  The crowds followed him.  They would follow him to be healed and fed.   Of course his crowds were usually the "losers" of the society.  Jesus hung out with sinners and tax collectors.  He did not mind being with the "untouchables".   Every once in a while the rich would come seeking a healing or asking a question.  But most of the time Jesus' friends were the popular losers of the day.

At the point where Jesus started really getting serious with his message, some of his followers began to leave.  His message was too hard to follow.  Jesus' concept of grace and forgiveness was too graceful and too forgiving.  His idea of discipleship was too demanding.    It was at this point Jesus turned to his most intimate group of disciples and said, "Are you going to leave too?"  Interesting question.

Did Jesus fear he was losing those whom he had won?

We seldom think of Jesus wondering about losing.  After all he is Jesus.  But I have to remember that Jesus WAS fully human.    There were times when he wondered if he was losing the battle and the war.  He was tired of being demonized by the religious right.  He was confronted with the movement of public opinion away from what God intended.  There is no doubt that he was affected by those who left as well as those who stayed.

The lesson in all of this for me is that sometimes the framework of the world is not the framework of the kingdom.    In the kingdom of God you are willing to lose all that is around you for the great pearl of the kingdom.  In this world, you can win everything life has to offer and lose eternity.  

A very successful politician sat alone in his office the day after the election.  He had won the night before by a landslide.  It was an emotion he had experienced many times before.  However, this one was different.  In previous days he had won the election by tearing apart all that confronted him.  This election he changed his strategy.  His strategy from now on was to do the right thing.  The right thing was lifting up the good in life.  The right thing was correcting the damage he had inflicted in days past.  In his own mind, he was transformed from a politician into a statesman.  How did this happen?

He held in his hand a note from his grandaughter.   The note said, "You are my hero because you always do good!"  He realized  that this was an invitation from God to become a real winner.  He made the commitment that day to become her hero.  He knew that it would only happen with a God presence in life.  His greatest fear now was not losing an election, but losing God presence and God direction.

What about you?  Winner or Loser?

Pray for me as I pray for you.

In the Master's Name,

Dr. M. Jack O'Dell

www.stlukesimpson.org

www.midweekmanna.com