Greetings friends of Lakeside. Here’s Wednesday’s food for thought brought to you by my office wall and cellphone…sorry about the blurry photo quality.
God’s Peace! ~Mindy
Count Your Blessings
Home … (however humble)
Giving to Others
Family and Friends
Children
Freedom
God’s grace
Fun and Laughter
Hands…and the things they can do
A heart and soul (even when they ache or break)
etc. etc. etc. (there are so many!)
When you work at a camp sometimes it feels like you live your life waiting…waiting for summer. It’s a completely different world when the campers and staff go home. Some days you can feel the emptiness. The sounds are even different.
Then the leaves fall and from the center of camp you can see clear down to the waterfront. Then the lake starts to freeze and the snow starts to fall and you get excited, not for the snow, but for the summer. Winter is when we prep…we finalize the camp summer curriculum, attend the confirmation planning event with the pastors (tomorrow), go around recruiting at colleges and visiting churches. We (by we I mean Stanek and myself) argue about the best way to organize staff training. It’s an exciting time!
And more than that you begin to day dream. You wonder and pray about who the summer staff will be. You wonder which camper will change your perspective the summer. You wonder about the weather…will it be too hot…will it be too wet…or will it be just right? (Hopefully the later.)
And throughout the process you count your blessing. You are thankful for the fact that there are college students out there crazy enough to work a summer at camp.You are thankful for pastors who look forward to bringing their youth to camp. You’re thankful that there are moms and dads and grandparents who bring their families year after year for family camp. You’re thankful that you have one of the best jobs on the planet…and you try to remember not to live your life waiting for summer.
“A bell’s not a bell ’til you ring it, A song’s not a song ’til you sing it, Love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay, Love isn’t love ’til you give it away!”
Oscar Hammerstein II
Photo Courtesy of Leonard John Matthews
Matthew 6:25-33
‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Too often in life we worry about tomorrow. If we were to tally the hours spent worrying and compared them to the hours we spent striving first for the kingdom where would the hours of life lie? Not to mention the other things we must do such as pay the bills, clean our homes, raise children…When was the last time you spent a quiet hour with God? It’s a good thing God doesn’t keep track of these things.
What if you were to take a lesson from Hat Man and remembered to be thankful daily for the miracle that is life? After all, as children of God aren’t we all creatures born of a second chance…and if we’re honest with ourselves we may actually be living our lives on a third or fourth or fifth chance. No matter, that’s the amazing thing about our God. The creator and giver of life does not tally up the hours we spend worrying. Instead we are given many chances and opportunities to give thanks and strive first for the kingdom of God right here and right now on Earth.
Photo Courtesy of Susanne Anette
He wears a rainbow colored knitted cap. One side says, “Hat Man” the other side says, “Days Out.”
“Do you want to hear a good story? Do you want to know why I’m the happiest man alive?,” he asks me as he gently tapped my shoulder.
He then proceeded to tell me a jumbled, but happy story, about anger, aneurysms, surgeries, babies, his family, and death. It was very personal…He was a bit crazy…He was wonderful.
Hat Man drives a shuttle back and forth from the Minneapolis Airport and Days Inn. Around Christmas time 1982, the year that I was born, he blacked out from a terrible headache. He was rushed to the hospital by his family where a neurosurgeon worked on “zapping” one of three aneurysms on his brain. He woke up several days later blind and paralyzed on one side of his body. Through more surgeries and therapy his sight returned and he no longer suffers from paralysis.
Throughout the operations and recovery his wife stood by his side. With support from her family they were able to have a home and raise their son and two daughters.
He stated several times, “My life is a miracle. See that green dot on my watch, that reminds me every time I look at it about God and his love. All I have to do is look down and I know that He is with me.” He restates this without realizing he’s already told me three times. (Due to the surgeries Hat Man has trouble remembering anything after 1982…he can’t even tell you what he had for breakfast. He writes notes to himself and keeps a journal so he can “remember” the details of his life.)
Hat Man then proceeds to tell me about the death of his neurosurgeon. At the funeral he cried and cried. So much so that he attracted the attention of the surgeon’s grieving widow.
She walked up to Hat Man and asked him, “Who are you and why are you so sad?”
Hat Man continued to cry, “I’m sad that such a great man died. I’m sad that I could never do enough to repay him for what he did for me. He never knew how thankful I am. Thanks to him I have a second chance at life.”
She replied, “Don’t be sad. My husband worked hard and was a good man. Can I ask you a favor?”
“Yes, anything.”
“Be happy and live your destiny.”
After the funeral Hat Man went home to talk to his wife. He told her about meeting the neurosurgeon’s wife. He also explained to her that he, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, could no longer remember the definition of destiny.
Hat Man’s wife then drew him a picture of a tree. She told him, “Our destiny is the path and direction that our life takes. Because we love each other so much our destinies are intertwined like the branches of this tree. We live our destiny every day. We have raised three beautiful children, we have three grandchildren, and we love and take care of each other. You share your story with all the people you meet on the shuttle and you read to children at schools and talk to them about second chances.”
After this Hat Man turned to me and gently touched me on the shoulder again, “Isn’t that a good story?”
“Yes,” I replied, “That is a great story.”
And thus we come to the end of Brent Stanek’s “Bizarre Christmas Carol Parodies.” Here are the six I promised you from last week…time does fly when we are having fun! Merriest of Merry Christmas to you all! And remember the parodies and artwork are from the mind of Stanek so if you don’t understand something it’s best to ask him directly. Enjoy. ~Mindy
Today’s guest post is brought to you by Brent Stanek,
Program Director at Lutheran Lakeside.
And here we are day three of the “Brent Stanek’s Bizarre Christmas Carol Parodies.” As you can see some names have been erased from these cards to protect the innocent…Really it’s to protect their privacy. Enjoy! ~Mindy
Today’s guest post is brought to by Lutheran Lakeside’s Program Director, Brent Stanek.
As promised here are three more of Stanek’s “Bizarre Christmas Parodies.” I remind you that the connection to the original Christmas carol may be a stretch at best…sometimes I think they may not be there at all. Regardless, they are funny and a bit silly, and perhaps even a little bit campy. And as before if you don’t see the connections to the original carol no worries, there will be three more tomorrow. Enjoy!
~ Mindy
Today’s guest blog is brought to you by
Lutheran Lakeside’s Program Director,
Stanek got it into his head this year that each Christmas Card to the staff should be a parody of a Christmas carol. Here are the first three. They are a bit silly and sometimes the connection to the original is a stretch, but you have to appreciate the original art work. Can you name the carol that was the inspiration behind each card? Better yet, do you know the first three lines of the song? If you don’t know the name of these three carols don’t worry each day this week we will feature three more of Stanek’s “Bizarre Christmas Carol Parodies.” Enjoy! ~ Mindy
Today’s guest post is brought to you by
Lutheran Lakeside’s Program director,
