There are several older guys at the church I work at that go around the building and fix things. If there is a hole in the wall, you let Geep know, and by the next day it is all fixed. If the drain in the baptistery is clogged, Geep will have it flowing again by Sunday. Geep is a real handy man. He can fix about anything. But then there is Wayne.
Wayne is about 70-something. He always wears denim overalls with a plaid t-shirt underneath. Wayne is a little overweight, so he tends to wobble more than he walks. He comes to the church about 3 times a week willing to do whatever needs to be done around the building. When Geep is wiring lights and building something for the children's ministry, Wayne is taking out the trash. You see, they don't give Wayne the important stuff. He is always doing menial tasks like taking out the trash or moving a chair from this room to that room...never anything too major.
Everyday Wayne comes to help out at the church, he always makes his way into the office. He might say a couple of words to me, but he usually bypasses me and heads straight to Mandy's desk where he will proceed to tell her some corny joke. As he walks away, you can hear him quietly chuckle to himself as he goes to do some small chore.
Up until today, this is all I have ever known about Wayne. While I was rearranging a classroom this morning for the college bible study we have at our campus, Wayne decided to pop his head in to see what I was doing. After telling me a joke I had heard him tell Mandy about five times, he just stood there and watched me move some chairs out of the room. Then when it came time for me to move some tables out of the room, he came over and helped me. He didn't do much. All he did was hold on to the tables to make sure they didn't fall over. But then he said, "One time I heard a Baptist preacher tell a great story. Want to hear it?" I told him sure and continued with my work.
He went on to tell me a story about a lady named Ms. Macaughlen...
One day a deacon in a baptist church went up to his preacher and said, "Pastor, a lady by the name of Ms. Macaughlen died yesterday, and she left a note saying she wants you to do her funeral." Thinking out loud, the preacher said, "Well, her name doesn't ring a bell. There are 1,500 members in this church." Then he asked the deacon, "Tell me some things about her so I'll have something nice to say about her during the funeral. Was she a sunday school teacher?" The deacon didn't think she was. "Was she in the choir?" the preacher quickly asked. The deacon once again replied in the negative. Quesiton after question the preacher asked the deacon about how Ms. Macaughlen might have served at the Baptist church, but they couldn't think of anything she had done besides that she attended every Sunday. The preacher thought to himself, "Regualr attendance is a good start. I'll be able to throw something together for her funeral."
The next day happened to be Easter Sunday, and the Baptist preacher was preaching a great emotional sermon. However, when he reached down under the podium to grab his glass of water to relieve his dry throat, he found nothing. No glass of water. He abruptly ended his sermon because he didn't have any water, and he walked off the stage. After the service the deacon walked up to the preacher and said, "Pastor, you were preaching a great sermon. Why did you end so quickly?" The preacher replied, "I didn't have my glass of water under my podium that I have ever Sunday." Then it hit the deacon. He said, "Oh, yea. That is what Ms. Macaughlen does every Sunday. She gets you a glass of water.
After telling the story, Wayne said in his raspy voice, "You see, the preacher never realized that Ms. Macaughlen filled up that water for him every Sunday. It is those little things the really count...Those small things that people do that matter."
I just sat there amazed at the simple story I had just heard from this old, simple man. I was currently moving table and chairs, something I have to do every week and I sometimes complain about. Wayne doesn't have beyond a 5th grade education, but that old guy has more wisdom then this Christian college graduate typing this post. Thanks Ms. Macaughlen. Thanks Wayne.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
First name Just. Last name Intern
A lot has happened since I last posted. My Kansas Jayhawks lost their first basketball game. Riots have erupted in the Mideast. My mom and dad both turned 50. Puxatony Phil didn't see his shadow, so spring should be getting here any day now. I think that's about it...oh, and I got engaged!
I proposed to Christine on January 22nd. Now there are rumors flying around that the only reason I asked Christine to marry me was because it was my good friend's birthday, but those rumors are false! I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with Christine. I honestly thought I might spend the rest of my life single once I graduated Ozark not dating anyone, because who graduates Bible college single? Most of the girls who go to a Christian college go there just to find a husband, right? But thankfully God had a girl in southern Indiana picked out for an awkward boy from Kansas. So if I had to sum up how I feel right now in one word it would be: IamSoExcitedToMarryChristineBerry.
Besides finding out who I'm going to live with the rest of my life, I also found out what I'm doing after my internship is over in May...I'm going to do another year-long internship at Southeast! I really love the students and sponsors. It would be so hard to leave them, and after Cody talked to me about the possibility of doing the internship again, I knew Southeast was the place I could best serve God this upcoming year. So I guess I'll be just an intern again...but I'm completely fine with that. Honestly, it will keep my head from getting to big. It's important to remember we are "Just" a person who God has chosen to further His Kingdom, because he could do it without me.
Sorry this was a short post. I guess you could call it an Umpa Lumpa post.
I proposed to Christine on January 22nd. Now there are rumors flying around that the only reason I asked Christine to marry me was because it was my good friend's birthday, but those rumors are false! I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with Christine. I honestly thought I might spend the rest of my life single once I graduated Ozark not dating anyone, because who graduates Bible college single? Most of the girls who go to a Christian college go there just to find a husband, right? But thankfully God had a girl in southern Indiana picked out for an awkward boy from Kansas. So if I had to sum up how I feel right now in one word it would be: IamSoExcitedToMarryChristineBerry.
Besides finding out who I'm going to live with the rest of my life, I also found out what I'm doing after my internship is over in May...I'm going to do another year-long internship at Southeast! I really love the students and sponsors. It would be so hard to leave them, and after Cody talked to me about the possibility of doing the internship again, I knew Southeast was the place I could best serve God this upcoming year. So I guess I'll be just an intern again...but I'm completely fine with that. Honestly, it will keep my head from getting to big. It's important to remember we are "Just" a person who God has chosen to further His Kingdom, because he could do it without me.
Sorry this was a short post. I guess you could call it an Umpa Lumpa post.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Knowing
Metamucil.
This is fiber supplement older people often take to help with their…um…bowel movements. Since I’m not much of a trendsetter, I have decided to start a new trend. I’m going to start taking Metamucil. I’m not doing this out of necessity or because I want to be more regular. Just want to start a trend…please believe me. The last time I tried to start a trend it didn’t work out so well. I tried to bring back “courting.” But every time I asked a girl if I could court them, they walked away. Another time I tried to make skip racing popular again. Back in the day, people would skip all the time. Then I thought to myself, “I’m competitive. Maybe I should race someone in skipping.” So I did, and I won. But it didn’t catch on. Maybe Metamucil will be more successful.
Now there really is no way of knowing whether or not I’m going to be successful in my attempt at making Metamucil a daily habit for 20-something year-olds, but there is one thing I do know. Humans have this longing sense to know. We want to be in the “know,” or we butt in conversations because we want to know what people are talking about. If you are every around little kids, they are always asking, “why?” They are so curious as to how the world around them works. Or they want to know the reason for why people do what they do. I remembering growing up I would always ask my parents “why” after they told me to do something. They would always quickly reply, “Because I said so!” After living in almost 23 years, I still want to know! I went to college and paid tons of money (well, my parents paid….thanks mom and dad!) just because I wanted to KNOW! I honesty think that we just never quit wanting to know.
In his book, Knowing God, J.I. Packer gives a great metaphor about how you can know something. He says that inanimate things are very easy to know. You can study it, and you can tell people what it looks like. You know the object. But it gets a little trickier when you try to get to know a living object. For instance, it will take you a little longer for you to know a horse. You would have to study its behaviors until you could finally tell someone that you know the horse. It gets even more complicated when it comes to knowing a human. Unlike a horse, humans can keep secrets and things hidden. You can know someone for 10 years, and they could do something totally out of the ordinary that you wouldn’t expect. So you really don’t know that person. In this instance, the ability to know a person falls on to the person who is getting known. It is up to them if they want to divulge knowledge about themselves. Are you following me? I hope so because this is very similar to our relationship and our pursuit of knowing God. The first thing we must understand that is that God has allowed us to get to know him. Jeremiah 24:7 says, “I will give them a heart to know me…”
I am humbled and very thankful that the God of the universe has allowed me to get to know Him! I hope I never miss the opportunity to get to know Him more and more each day.
This is fiber supplement older people often take to help with their…um…bowel movements. Since I’m not much of a trendsetter, I have decided to start a new trend. I’m going to start taking Metamucil. I’m not doing this out of necessity or because I want to be more regular. Just want to start a trend…please believe me. The last time I tried to start a trend it didn’t work out so well. I tried to bring back “courting.” But every time I asked a girl if I could court them, they walked away. Another time I tried to make skip racing popular again. Back in the day, people would skip all the time. Then I thought to myself, “I’m competitive. Maybe I should race someone in skipping.” So I did, and I won. But it didn’t catch on. Maybe Metamucil will be more successful.
Now there really is no way of knowing whether or not I’m going to be successful in my attempt at making Metamucil a daily habit for 20-something year-olds, but there is one thing I do know. Humans have this longing sense to know. We want to be in the “know,” or we butt in conversations because we want to know what people are talking about. If you are every around little kids, they are always asking, “why?” They are so curious as to how the world around them works. Or they want to know the reason for why people do what they do. I remembering growing up I would always ask my parents “why” after they told me to do something. They would always quickly reply, “Because I said so!” After living in almost 23 years, I still want to know! I went to college and paid tons of money (well, my parents paid….thanks mom and dad!) just because I wanted to KNOW! I honesty think that we just never quit wanting to know.
In his book, Knowing God, J.I. Packer gives a great metaphor about how you can know something. He says that inanimate things are very easy to know. You can study it, and you can tell people what it looks like. You know the object. But it gets a little trickier when you try to get to know a living object. For instance, it will take you a little longer for you to know a horse. You would have to study its behaviors until you could finally tell someone that you know the horse. It gets even more complicated when it comes to knowing a human. Unlike a horse, humans can keep secrets and things hidden. You can know someone for 10 years, and they could do something totally out of the ordinary that you wouldn’t expect. So you really don’t know that person. In this instance, the ability to know a person falls on to the person who is getting known. It is up to them if they want to divulge knowledge about themselves. Are you following me? I hope so because this is very similar to our relationship and our pursuit of knowing God. The first thing we must understand that is that God has allowed us to get to know him. Jeremiah 24:7 says, “I will give them a heart to know me…”
I am humbled and very thankful that the God of the universe has allowed me to get to know Him! I hope I never miss the opportunity to get to know Him more and more each day.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Not so Noisy in Boise.
Yesterday I was privileged to be in my good friend's wedding. Ryan and Tasha got married on January 1st at 1 o'clock in Boise, Idaho. So their anniversary will be 1/1/11...smart move on Ryan's part. He should never forget that date, right? I think I'll probably get married on 4/4/44, so I'll never forget my anniversary. I don't want my wife beating me with her walking stick.
When we first landed in Boise for the wedding a couple days ago, I started making this joke about how we are going to get crazy while we were in Idaho. At the airport I said, "Let's get noisy in Boise!" Then this older man over heard me and said, "Boise isn't noisy. New Orleans is." Then he walked away. What a kill joy. Despite the Old man's warnings, I still tried to make it noisy in Boise...
When we first landed in Boise for the wedding a couple days ago, I started making this joke about how we are going to get crazy while we were in Idaho. At the airport I said, "Let's get noisy in Boise!" Then this older man over heard me and said, "Boise isn't noisy. New Orleans is." Then he walked away. What a kill joy. Despite the Old man's warnings, I still tried to make it noisy in Boise...
On the flight from Denver to Boise, I was reading a chapter out of Pete Wilson's Book Plan B. The whole chapter dealt with something that I am horrible at dealing with. WORRY. If you are close to me at all, you know that I don't handle stress very well, and all the stress is directly connected with worry. I don't know about you guys, but I always tend to worry about really dumb stuff...stuff I can't control. Motivational speaker Earl Nightiingale said that 40% of the things we worry about never happen. He adds that an additional 30% are things that happened in the past and can't be changed anyway. Needless concern about our personal health occupies 12% of our worries, and 10% of our worries are petty, miscelaaneious items. In other words, according to Nightingale, 92% of our worries have no substance at all. Only about 8% of our worries are legitimate matters worhty of our conern! I know this is very true in my own life. I always worry and stress out about stuff that I have no control of. I met a guy named Seth at the wedding I was in yesterday, and he is one of the most laidback guys I have ever met. Besides being sick the past couple days, he had to travel about ten hours back to Oregon rigth after the reception because he had to teach on Sunday morning. When I asked if he was freaking out about it, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "There is really nothing I can do about it...so no worries." Man I wish I could respond to worries like that.
Even though Seth did admit that he might be a little to lax when it comes to worry, I still wish I could be more Seth-like instead of totally freaking out and getting worked up. Can I ask you a question? Well, since I just did, let me ask you another. Do you like watching birds? My friends sometimes make fun of me because I love just sitting out on the back porch and watch birds with my parents. I just love watching them interact with each other and eating from bird feeders. They live a pretty simple life. Besides living a simple life, did you know that most of the birds' brain space is taken up by their eyes? So they are not the brightest animal in the animal kingdom. Matthew 5:26 is Jesus talking in the Sermon on the Mount and he says, "Look at the birds in the air. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth much more than the birds." So despite their seeming lack of purpose and intellect, Jesus says God takes care of them.
In the previous verse Jesus plainly states, "do not worry." So is Jesus saying not to worry at all? Does he not want you to be concerned about your parent's pending divorce, the tanking economy or a dying love one? Absolutely not! I think Jesus just wants to give us a different perspective. This new perspective gives us a better understanding of what is truly important: Life! The fact that God has blessed with the ability to live for Him is truly the best gift we could ever ask for.
So the next time I start worrying, I need to take a breath and think to myself, "Is this just something that fits into the 92% of worries that is meaningless or do I really need to be concerned at that moment? Right now, I'm sitting on chair in a living room in Boise, Idaho. After the wedding yesterday, it really hasn't been so noisy in Boise. Just a lot of sitting around doing nothing. At first, I was really stressing out about this because I knew I could be at home with my family instead of sitting here doing nothing. But I really can't change that because my flight doesn't leave until tomorrow, so it does me no good to stress out about it. I don't know if you struggle with this stuff like I do, but if you do, let's focus on that 8% instead of the 92.
Even though Seth did admit that he might be a little to lax when it comes to worry, I still wish I could be more Seth-like instead of totally freaking out and getting worked up. Can I ask you a question? Well, since I just did, let me ask you another. Do you like watching birds? My friends sometimes make fun of me because I love just sitting out on the back porch and watch birds with my parents. I just love watching them interact with each other and eating from bird feeders. They live a pretty simple life. Besides living a simple life, did you know that most of the birds' brain space is taken up by their eyes? So they are not the brightest animal in the animal kingdom. Matthew 5:26 is Jesus talking in the Sermon on the Mount and he says, "Look at the birds in the air. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth much more than the birds." So despite their seeming lack of purpose and intellect, Jesus says God takes care of them.
In the previous verse Jesus plainly states, "do not worry." So is Jesus saying not to worry at all? Does he not want you to be concerned about your parent's pending divorce, the tanking economy or a dying love one? Absolutely not! I think Jesus just wants to give us a different perspective. This new perspective gives us a better understanding of what is truly important: Life! The fact that God has blessed with the ability to live for Him is truly the best gift we could ever ask for.
So the next time I start worrying, I need to take a breath and think to myself, "Is this just something that fits into the 92% of worries that is meaningless or do I really need to be concerned at that moment? Right now, I'm sitting on chair in a living room in Boise, Idaho. After the wedding yesterday, it really hasn't been so noisy in Boise. Just a lot of sitting around doing nothing. At first, I was really stressing out about this because I knew I could be at home with my family instead of sitting here doing nothing. But I really can't change that because my flight doesn't leave until tomorrow, so it does me no good to stress out about it. I don't know if you struggle with this stuff like I do, but if you do, let's focus on that 8% instead of the 92.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Happy New Year!
My last fact of 2010: I had more blog posts than David John Heffren.
But on a serious note, 2010 was a great year! Here is my quick list of my review of 2010
- I went to New York City at the beginning of the year. I went to a broadway show, saw the Empire State Building, ate New York pizza, and shook Mike Ditka's hand.
- I graduated from College in May. I was the first Landis to graduate from College!!
- I took an internship in southern Indiana. I still have 5 more months left, and I'm pumped to see God move in the Jr. high and high school students.
- I met an amazing girl named Christine
- Walked into a girl's bathroom.
- Got my passport.
- I went to Atlanta for Catalyst, a conference for church leaders. It was a blast!
Basically what I'm trying to say is that God has blessed beyond anything I could ever imagine. There will be a lot in store in 2011, and I can't wait! Next year, I'll be going to Kenya, finding a full-time ministry, and who knows what else 2011 has in store. I love you guys and have a great new year!
But on a serious note, 2010 was a great year! Here is my quick list of my review of 2010
- I went to New York City at the beginning of the year. I went to a broadway show, saw the Empire State Building, ate New York pizza, and shook Mike Ditka's hand.
- I graduated from College in May. I was the first Landis to graduate from College!!
- I took an internship in southern Indiana. I still have 5 more months left, and I'm pumped to see God move in the Jr. high and high school students.
- I met an amazing girl named Christine
- Walked into a girl's bathroom.
- Got my passport.
- I went to Atlanta for Catalyst, a conference for church leaders. It was a blast!
Basically what I'm trying to say is that God has blessed beyond anything I could ever imagine. There will be a lot in store in 2011, and I can't wait! Next year, I'll be going to Kenya, finding a full-time ministry, and who knows what else 2011 has in store. I love you guys and have a great new year!
A year of Constipation
It takes Food seven minutes to get from your mouth to your stomach.
Too bad food doesn't travel that fast from my stomach to my colon to the toilet...for me anyways. I know a lot of people who have very regular bowel movements. I am about to announce to the blogging world something I have kept hidden from you guys for so long...I have constipation from time to time.
On a brighter note...it was just New Years in the Midwest for you central timers! Enjoy your sparkling grape juice.
Too bad food doesn't travel that fast from my stomach to my colon to the toilet...for me anyways. I know a lot of people who have very regular bowel movements. I am about to announce to the blogging world something I have kept hidden from you guys for so long...I have constipation from time to time.
On a brighter note...it was just New Years in the Midwest for you central timers! Enjoy your sparkling grape juice.
Number Forty-Two
This next Fact is dedicated to my brother Jim. Since a very young age, my little brother has detested feet. If you are feeling a little daring, I dare you to try and put your feet on him.
Anyways...did you know that a pair of human feet contain 250,000 sweat glands? Me neither. So the next time you think about your feet just think, "Wow. I'm standing on a lot of sweat glands."
7 Minutes until New Years on the East coast!
Anyways...did you know that a pair of human feet contain 250,000 sweat glands? Me neither. So the next time you think about your feet just think, "Wow. I'm standing on a lot of sweat glands."
7 Minutes until New Years on the East coast!
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