West Cocoa Chat

My wife is a very special woman. She has taught kindergarten in public school for 29 years. She has been at one school for her entire career which is almost unheard of in these times of over a 50% dropout rate among new teachers after 3 years on the job. Barb is nothing short of a deaconess (she would die if she knew I just typed that) at our church. She provides each Wednesday's meal for our "Dinner and a Devo." She ramrods many of our special events for our kids including our kid's Christmas Party and the Fall Festival. It also goes without saying that she gives our church a special gift each Christmas, our Church Christmas Party.

O.K., are you impressed with my wife. She is the epitome of being "sweet" if you will. Yet, this calm, loving, and gentle demeanor can be changed into a raging rampage at the sight of one (unfortunately not me) thing - Fall leaves!!

A couple of weeks ago we were in South Carolina for the Gator game. On our way home on Sunday and while still in S.C., my sweet / kindergarten teaching wife spotted some Fall leaves on some trees in the parking lot of a small strip mall. Being the dutiful husband, I pulled into the parking lot of the strip mall, just a bit nervous about "pulling leaves" off some one's tree. I figured that a few leaves shouldn't make any shop owner too mad if we were observed.

The trees were on a bit of a berm so I told my wife to stay back as I bounded up the "dangerously steep" berm to be hers and her Kindergarten class's hero. I delicately pulled about 4 different leaves off of one branch to give her class the full variety of colors that I could see. The reaction I received from my wife wasn't what I expected.

As I handed her the leaves she looked at me and said, "That's not nearly enough." Before I knew it, my sweet wife bounded up the same berm, grabbed an entire branch, and proceeded to tear off the entire branch off this tree. Before I could utter what I was ("Are you crazy / we're in stinking South Carolina and I'm unarmed!") thinking she came off the berm and shouted, "There's (as in complete branch) another!"

She sprinted across the parking lot before I could throw her in our Expo. I grabbed the down branch, threw it in our Expo, did my best "Starsky and Hutch" imitation as I burned rubber backing out of the parking space, drove over to where she was now dismembering another tree owned by this strip mall, jumped out of the still moving car, and said, "Baby, you're going to get us shot. Please get in the car."

She looked at me and said, "Silly goose, its only TWO branches." I love my wife but she's an animal around Fall Leaves. Zeesh!

We've been praying for one of our brothers that is going through Army Basic Training. Josh sent me a letter the other day giving me a description of how hard "BT" was. He wrote, "Climbing Mt. Tweeto (the 13,700ft peak we climbed in Colorado a couple of years ago) was a cakewalk compared to what I'm going through now."

Josh has asked for letters but he has also asked that those of us at church follow his instructions to the (no pun intended) letter. It seems that if one doesn't follow "envelope" directions (no fru-fru colors, not putting a "1" with a circle around it on the flap, ect) Josh's Drill Sargent like the famous R. Lee Emery of the History Channel's "Mail Call" show, will tell him, "Drop and give me 25 pushups maggot!"

I was sharing this letter with the brothers at our Men's Bible Study when one of the men shared his "Mail Call experience" when he was going through BT. It seems that he had a girlfriend who lived in San (can you see this coming?) Francisco. She was good about writing him and would send him 3 to 4 letters a week.

The trouble was that he started dreading these letters because when his platoon gathered for Mail Call, his Drill Sargent would see the San Francisco address and yell out, "Hey, (name changed to protect the innocent) Smith's homo boyfriend from San Francisco just sent him another letter!" As I listened to his story and read Josh's letter I have to say, those of you who have served in the military are special people who deserve our respect and all the plain white envelopes we can find!

This past weekend recalled those days of yesteryear or in this case, the movie, "Animal House" as we made a "road trip" to see our good friends Bob and Shelby in South Carolina. Bob had tickets to the SC (that would be the east coast version) vs Florida game. Barb graciously decided to make the road trip with me. She and Shelby spent Saturday exercising some "RT" or retail therapy as you ladies like to call it.

Bob and I spent Saturday amongst the pageantry of College Football, SEC style. The buddies that Bob tailgates with are great guys and girls. They were very open to this Florida Boy but that was probably due to this FSU Seminole wanting someone to knock off the Gators.

For 3 quarters that wish was in sight. The rooster was crowing loudly over the Sound System and the Carolina fans were rocking the house especially when one particular song was played. The stadium was literally rocking as the Gamecock fans were jumping up and down and waving the Veteran Day Flags that had been given out before the game. Then there was third and 2.

The score was 17 to 14 in favor of the Gators in the 3rd quarter. However, "Old Mo" better known as "momentum" had swung to the Gamecock side. Carolina was driving for at the very least for a game tying field goal and a possible go ahead touchdown. Inside Gator territory with one a third and 2, Steve Spurrier decided to call for a pass over the middle. The receiver bobbled the ball into the air and into the hands of a Gator defensive lineman.

As Keith Jackson might have said, he rumbled, bumbled, and stumbled down to the SC ten yard line and ended the crowing of the Gamecocks. College football, there's nothing like it.

Well its about time - no wonder I'm one of the "leaders" in our church. It takes me forever to get around to doing something. That was a joke BTW - come on guys - don't leave me "hanging."

My good friend Brady (http://evendays.org/) reminded me today that this is the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Who would have ever thought as late as the late 1980's the Berlin Wall would come down, the Iron Curtain would fall, and freedom would reign again in Germany as well as eastern Europe.

I was having a similar conversation with 2 members of our church. They had been at our church when a wall of legalism divided many from the freedoms we have in Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit. We marveled at how "our wall" came down and this by no plan of any man but by the working of the hands of God. Too many events had occurred not to ascribe it to the working of God's Spirit.

We're not a perfect church by any stretch of the imagination but there is a freedom to endeavor to be Christ-like in our walks and to freely confess when things go awry. God is good, all the time.

"Oh, he's just going through a phase." Have you ever said that about your kids, your spouse, or (if you're into talking about yourself in the third person) yourself? Do churches go through "phases?" I think they do if our church is any proof of that.

This past Saturday we past through another phase on our journey towards being truly non-denominational. Our preacher Don, has been forging a relationship with a mostly African American inner-city (this is a mouthful) non-denominational church, "Celebration Tabernacle." This relationship took another step as we held a joint Fall Festival at our church.

Our parking lot was awash with kids and adults of various ethnicity's. There was a spirit of fellowship that transcended the fact that we are citizens of the same city as there always is when the people of God get together.

Someone said they heard their pastor remark on how amazing it was that just a few months ago, many of us drove by each other buildings and never gave getting our churches together a second thought. Going through phases as a church isn't always pain free but I can tell you this, the doors God will open far outweighs avoiding the pain. To God be the glory.