sharing a meal with sonny, perk and ??? – a simple act of worship

Ben and I set out for our bi-weekly homeless lunch. It was a misty cold day with an overcast foggy skyline. We walked around Market and Rodney Square looking for Charlie or Eric or Donald, but we didn’t find any of them. But we did find 3 other guys.

Ben was up first this week, he asked me if he should go up to 3 guys standing together. I’m the skeptic cheap guy so I said to Ben, “Dude, you want to take 3 guys to lunch???” He said, “Yeah, good point”…then he proceeded to go up to them and ask if they were up for joining us for lunch. That’s so like Ben…

Well they were up for lunch. We met the coolest guys – Perk, Sonny and another guy who would not tell us his name for security reasons. He said he doesn’t give out his name to anyone. We were like, “Hey that’s cool – we don’t need your name, just come anyway.”

They asked us why we would take them to lunch. Ben gave this awesome response of why we’re doing this, I’m sure he’ll mention it on his blog – check it out here.

I can’t even begin to describe our lunch, but fun is a good word to start with. We threw together our $$ and had just enough to pay for all five lunches. I think we had $3 dollars left. The small restaurant we go to is called Benjamin’s on 10th, at 204 West 10th Street, Wilmington, DE 19801. The place is great, one person behind the cash register, and one cook. They only take cash. I got a BLT, Ben got ham & cheese, ??? got a BLT, and Perk and Sunny got large cheese steaks with everything.

Sonny is a blues man. He is definitely a believer in Jesus. We started talking about worship and he said so many wise things. He said he follows a hard Jesus (as opposed to an easy Jesus) and that Jesus has always given him a door to take out of bad situations (like Vietnam). He travels from city to city and apparently plays a lot of blues. He said he worships through the blues, because God sees his heart.

But one thing he said in particular really hit me. He said that no matter what we sing, we need to “Lift Him”. Maybe it was his deep raspy bluesy voice, but for whatever reason there was a lot of weight and honesty behind his words. He kept saying “Lift Him” over and over again when he described how to worship. I told him that when I lead worship sometimes it seems that people are not really worshiping like they could. He said that whatever song we sing, no matter how we sing it we need to “Lift Him”. And he said maybe we’re not “Lifting Him“. I need to give his words time to sink in. Especially “Lift Him”.

Another highlight was when Sonny started chatting with the waitress and all of a sudden he had his harmonica out and he was singing her a bluesy love song. It was so awesome, I wish you all could’ve been there.

I learned so much today. Here are a couple of pics from Ben’s phone to prove we’re not making these lunches up…

me sonny and perk…

sonny…

freerice.com

a good cause and a fun way to see how bad your vocab is…

here’s my freebe: tintinnabulation = ringing

based on my research, this site is legit. look at their faq and do your own research, please let me know if you find otherwise because i’m a skeptic…

taking the random out of kindness (it’s ok not to be safe part 4 of 5)

Have you ever driven by someone on the road, and noticed that it looked like they needed help – then had the thought:

maybe I should stop and help that guy!

but then you keep right on driving?

Well, I have.

A few weeks ago I was in this situation and it went down a little differently…

I was headed back to Wilmington after meeting Ben for lunch and happened to pass this couple that was waiting under a tree, they had their son who was probably 3 or 4 with them. It looked like they were waiting for a bus or a ride.

I drove by, then decided to turn around (the pivotal moment of the story).

I parked in the parking lot near them. Walked up and said I was heading to Wilmington if they needed a ride. It was funny, they were arguing when I walked up. I even mentioned I had a car seat for their son.

They said they were waiting for a ride, said thanks, they were a little hesitant because of the situation. But they seemed a little surprised by my kindness. So much so that I think they forgot about their argument.

In Romans 2:4 Paul reminds us that even in Christ’s righteous judgment it’s his kindness that leads us towards repentance.

So I had this idea that part of the Christian life is a life of kindness that’s demonstrated with the purpose and hope to somehow offer people the chance to turn around. To repent.

It sort of takes the random out of kindness.

what i learned from my mom-in-law

Libby’s mom said something to us a while ago that has really stuck with me. It’s just so wise I had to post it here for posterity.

Libby and I have been exploring how to follow God more fully in our lives. We’ve talked about everything from moving to Paris and helping start a church, or becoming a campus/university pastor or going on staff at a church as a worship/arts pastor or associate pastor. Libby’s parents were missionaries in Germany for almost 20 years. They started 2 evangelical churches south of Frankfurt, Germany that are still thriving and alive today.

This was her mom’s advise…

Don’t expect to go on the mission field (or into ministry) and start doing something you’re not already doing here, because it won’t happen.

That’s just pure wisdom. This comment alone helped me realize that worship leading will be part of the next steps in our journey of following God – no matter what it is.

What’s something you learned from your in-laws?

sharing a meal with eric – a simple act of worship

Ben and I had the chance to take Eric to lunch today. Eric is down and out, he has no money and is homeless.

We had a good time talking with Eric and sharing a meal with him. We got rejected 5 times before we found someone that was willing to join us. One guy asked us for a cigarette, maybe next time I’ll buy a pack before hand. A couple of other guys were playing chess and just sort of laughed at us when we asked. One of the guys that laughed had a gold tooth which I thought was cool.

We asked Eric if he wanted to join us for lunch. He said, “yeah, but I don’t have any money” We said, “that’s fine, it’s on us. Where do you wanna go?” He said, “Somewhere I can get a cheeseburger”. So that’s what we did.

I was reminded today that I am rich in so many ways. Eric is divorced, doesn’t keep up with his biological or married families, has 4 daughters that he doesn’t keep up with and he’s on the run. He has a college degree, went to Brandywine High school has served in the military and at one time was pretty successful. But now he sleeps at the Dunkin’ Donuts ‘because it’s open 24 7′.

I would say that sitting down with Eric, sharing a meal with him, and generally trying to engage in his struggle has simply been an act of worship. Not much more.

To be a worshiper of God is to Love the Lord your God with all your Heart (Deut. 6:5) AND to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18). Jesus simplified all the law down to these two commandments.

Loving God is connected to the way that we love people. And if we don’t love and connect to others, then we probably don’t really worship.

We so quickly stretch out our hands to God in worship, but so hesitantly stretch out our hands to others to offer help. But we still call ourselves worshipers. Hmm…maybe our logic is off.

Ben and I commented that just like anytime when you reach out, you end up learning more and getting more out of it in the end. That was true when we shared a meal with Eric. I learned I need to bring some Marlboro’s next time.

not trying to point the finger at you, unless the ‘you’ is me

Here’s some honesty for you bro…

Sometimes I’m confused how sin can step into a really spiritual moment or time. If I’m honest with myself, this happens. I can be doing something very spiritual and God focused – like praising or worshiping or planing worship – and then sin enters its ugly head…there are some ways that it keeps popping in, it always seems to find a door. And if I’m really honest with myself, really honest, really honest – then I admit that sin is in every corner. There’s all kinds. Discontent, consumption, greed, lust, laziness, pride, wanting to be cool/popular/wanted/famous – all this being afraid that someone else will think less of me, because I’m so full of sin. And I am. But from what I know of others, they are too.

Not trying to point the finger at you, unless the you is me. Cause I’m not really writing to you as much as I’m writing to me.

One of the addictive behaviors that pulls me in is to stay relevant and edgy – to stay “cool”. If I’m really honest part of me just wants to be a cool Christian, edgy relevant informed missional or whatever. I want to be the man. This is pride knocking down my door. I think this is a temptation when we are part of this emergent/communal/visionary/missional/edgy part of the church, because at times it does feel very cool to be part of what’s happening on the fringes. But that can become an addiction when it becomes the focus or the end goal.

This is what Shane Claiborn said in his book “Irresistible Revolution”:

I guess everybody’s just trying to be cool. I remember the cool days. I used to be cool, chillin with the in-crowd of respectable United Methodists…but everything cool came to an abrupt end, my coolness ruined by a God who has everything backward.

He went on to say that even the pagans hang out with cool people. But God is directing us to be with the not-so-cool. He points out that our luke warm (an old-school way of saying “cool”) Christianity will be spit out of God’s mouth (Rev. 3:16).

But that’s me, in some ways I’m still a luke-warm “cool” Christian. But it’s never too late!

a new way to say yes

God…help me find a new way to say yes to you….today – here and now