West Cocoa Chat

First, a "Word Press" shout out to my blog buddy, Brady (http://www.evendays.org/) I have emailed Word Press several times about my failed attempts at commenting on his blog. Everytime I attempt to comment I get a "404 Error" message instead. If anyone out there has pull with Word Press, tell them there is a frustrated guy in Central Florida trying to connnect with his favorite Swiss buddy but to no avail.

I headed home from our Leadership Meeting last night around 10:30. I called wife to tell her I was in transit and to report that the Expo's external guage was reading 38. In Florida we get all flustered when we see temps with tens digits that are less than 4. In less than 2miles (know it well as its on my 6 mile run route) the temperature dropped to 31. Now, it has been well documented that many of you (Terri, Donna, Judy, Keith, Brady and the like) have no sympathy for a Central Florida boy complainning about "cold" temperatures when those very same temperatures for many of you would be considered the beginnings of Spring. I humbly seek your forgiveness. But here in Central Florida, 31 at 10:30pm is cause to raise the shields and start yelling things like, "Red (Star Trek) Alert," "Emergency (the Hunt for Red October) Blow," or "Where's the (Christmas Vacation) tylonol!"

One of the precautions we Floridians are instructed to take when faced with "orange - chilling" temperatures is to turn on (I can hear the collective "Give me a break-s" out there) our pool filters. I guess ice cubes and pump motors don't mix very well. My dilema was normally on a cold night, freezing temperatures do not occur until after bedtime. I was on my way home and already the temps were below freezing and I hadn't had a chance to turn on the pool filter - rut row!

I arrived home and without changing my cool looking black leather jacket while putting on my cool headlamp I wore on our trip to the Colorado backcountry, I went around to the side of our home to turn on the filter. The filter came on but it was a bit rough. So at 11pm, I took my filter apart to clean it, put it back together, and turned on the filter. The day or rather the night was saved.

Standing in that cold air and being able to see my breath for some reason made me think of the church. I think there are times in the lifestream of a church (or our ourselves for that matter) that like the freezing temperatures and my pool filter, threaten to damage or destroy the church. Prayer and action is requred to keep the church from seizing up. The climate for action may not be conducive for leaders to feel very warm about the idea of stepping out in front of the flock and perhaps being left our in the cold. Nevertheless one thing is certain, like my pool filter, if action isn't taken at times in the church by leaders to restore the fire to a congregation, the result could be permanent damage and loss of an ability to act as God's filter to a lost and dying world.

I was worried last night that I was too late in starting my pool filter. I shutter to think how worried I would be if I had the same concerns about my church and didn't feel bold enough to take it apart, clean the filter, re-lube the gaskets, and hit the restart switch. For those of you in church leadership, it may be cold and threatening outside - don't let it deter you. If you feel the Holy Spirit's leading and you're grounded in the Word - turn the filter on!