thoughts from the weekend

Thoughts from the weekend:

Last Friday evening, Debbie and I were invited to go to a White Sox game. So....that was two games for me in one week! I was thrilled. Now that I am investing my emotions in the team, I was not thrilled however, that they lost.

Alexei Ramirez made two errors. Every time he gets a ground ball, I cringe.

We had a great time with Joe and Holly Schwider. Wonderful people.

Yesterday was a good Sunday. We took up pledges for our new church campus - asking people to either pledge for the first time, keep their current pledge going - or raise their pledge.

It is an exciting time in the life of our church!

While it has been (and continues to be) a lot of work, I know that God is going to bless us and minister through us and use us and...well you get the point.

With my spiritual eyes, I see whole families coming to Christ. Through our Upward Basketball ministry to kids (grades kindergarten through sixth grade) I see non-churched people connecting to God.

I foresee signs and wonders, the blind seeing the lame walking. I see people being baptized in the Holy Spirit. I see the disconnected, connecting to God and the connected growing in Christ.

It gives me goose bumps just pondering the possibilities.

As I said yesterday, it takes all of us working together as a team.

It takes all of us praying, all of us giving. Not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice. In 2 Corinthians, Paul reminds us that it's not the amount that God cares about (2 Corinthians 8). Some people can give a lot because they have a lot.

Others might give a smaller amount, but it is no less significant because they are giving according to what they have.

All pledges are significant when they are given sacrificially.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:10-11, "Having started the ball rolling so enthusiastically, you should carry this project through to completion just as gladly, giving whatever you can out of whatever you have. Let your enthusiasm at the start be equaled by realistic action now."

In other words, let's continue to be as passionate about our relocating our church campus as we were at the start. It is not how we start that counts - it is how we finish.

I love to hang around enthusiastic people.

It's like the 10 year old boy who was selling pencils door to door in his neighborhood. When an interested adult at one house asked him the reason for selling pencils, he replied, "I want to raise six million dollars to build a new hospital for the city."

Amazed, the inquiring adult exclaimed, "That's a mighty big job for just one little boy, isn't it?"

"No," responded the 10 year old with big dreams, "I have a friend who's helping me."

I like that.

May we all continue to dream "big dream" and be passionate about letting God help us fulfill them.