Ok, so it has been a while – blogging got the best of me! Life gets crazy with 4 kids, a church, a capital campaign, a building program, and well….you get the picture. So I had to set some things to the side and re-focus what I was doing…end result no blogging for me for a while.
Still love to connect with people and will be using Facebook & Linkedin
or for those who prefer Linkedin
www.linkedin.com/in/benfeldott
Thanks & see you there!
Ben
Have you ever heard of John Hart? … John Morton?… John Witherspoon?… John Penn?… uhhhhhhhh…me either! What about John Hancock?…of course! The guy with the BIG signature who famously said (probably did not happen) when signing the Declaration of Independence “There I guess King George can read that”.
It turns out the size of his signature seems due to the fact that he was the first of the signers and given the open space took a bit more than his allotment! History will forever remember that signature – John Hancock had left his mark so to speak. In life there is a part of us that wants to leave a big signature, our mark on the world no one will forget, but as followers of Christ our calling is to make His name unforgettable and so the struggle.
Back to my list of “Johns”… you know: Hart, Morton, Witherspoon, & Penn…it turns out they are all signers of the Declaration of Independence too (go ahead and look it up!). I like that picture.. we get to leave our mark, our signature, but our mark is only truly meaningful if the name of Jesus is largest of all.
What about you…does your name have to be biggest…when people look at the “Declaration” of our lives whose signature do they notice?
If you visit Japan you can stop by the Ogori Cafe…but you have been warned! The Ogori cafe’ sells and assortment of drinks, snacks, and sandwiches…with a twist. Slide up to the counter, survey the menu, make your pick and place your order with the right amount of Japanese Yen for payment…so far so good, right?
Then you pick up your order…only it is not your order – it is the order from the last person in line before you. What? A mistake…nope! At the Ogori Cafe’ you get what the person in front of you in line ordered and your order goes to the person behind you in line….on purpose! Every meal is a mystery and every order your opportunity to give to someone else. Weird heh! Why would I “dine” where my order and my $ go to someone else?
I have been thinking about MK 2:5, about how our faith blesses others (not always or necessarily us). Are we willing to step out by faith, invest in faith,… for others. My faith may be for the next person in line. Our “Moving by Faith” campaign is each of us stepping up to the counter to place an order and pay the price so we can make room for others, for our children, our grandchildren, our neighbors. Sure we are blessed as well but we order not for the blessing but for the next person in line.
Order up!
Ogori Cafe' Menu
A few weeks back Tammy and I were flying home from GA, we had made an early arrival at the airport to return our rental car (you know its early when the rental car agency isn’t open yet!). After making our way through ticketing we approached security, I grabbed my tickets and reached for my wallet as we approached the security check. That is when I discovered I had lost my Drivers License! Panic time…we were on a tight schedule to get home for our daughters science fair event and here I was handing Tammy the car keys and telling her to go ahead.
After I had emptied my bags looking for my license I decided to plead my case to the security agents. I knew what was coming..”Do you have any other picture ID”…answer NO… I have credit cards, I have a check book. At this point they call over the Supervisor who reviews my credit cards, check book and clearly is looking for more. I wanted to start telling him all the reasons I could not be a terrorist but thought better of it (good thought!). Finally he asked me if I had anything else…I scrounged my brief case and found….a Blockbuster Video card. I knew it was lame…Blockbuster is lame (Go Redbox) and makes an even ‘lamer’ ID. He laughed and looked at me (checking me for me criminal content) and then said OK you can fly! Phew relief! Blockbuster got me through. I owe that supervisor big time!
Was I groveling, begging, pleading…yep’ – you bet. Every once in a while we realize we don’t have a right to demand anything and it is humbling.
When Jesus calls us to serve him it is always humbling, there is this moment when we try to pull our proof of our identity, our ability and we realize we have nothing – the best we can offer is our weakness…our Blockbuster Card. The best part is when Jesus looks at our weakness and calls us anyway. He is not calling us because of our strength or identity but because in our emptiness he as the chance to be seen.
If you have sent anytime by the ocean you may have seen this phenomenon, lots of 1 legged seagulls. When you first notice it can be disconcerting…what could cause all of these poor seagulls to be “1 legged”….mutation, predators, ?????.
Before you jump to any conclusions, watch closely…hang around for a while…and you will notice the magical appearance of the missing leg! Seagulls it seem have taken to tucking a leg up into their bodies as a way of resting that leg (if you ask me standing on one leg was never restful, but then again I am not a seagull!) . The result is the uncanny appearence of being “1 legged”. It seems…things are not always as they seem.
When we talk about how our lives are “marked”, things are not always as they seem either. We have a tendency to rush to blame the sorrowful stuff in our lives on the obvious culprits…but take a closer look and a different story appears. Lifes “marks” seem to come in 3 varieties…I call them Birthmarks, Scars, and Tattoo’s. Birthmarks are the things we are born into, Scars are the things others have done to us, and Tattoo’s are the things we have done to ourselves. Knowing the true culprit is the beginning to overcoming in Christ.
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
To watch the whole message (Story of Birthmarks, Scars, & Tattoos) Check here…
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