Have you tried to book a flight online recently? Or talk to a cable TV representative or someone about your cell phone bill? Is it my imagination or does life seems to be getting more frustrating? Why is it that the things that are designed to make life easier, like online flight arrangements and automated business phone answering systems, seem to have the ability to aggravate you more than help you? Is it just me or does anyone else struggle with wading through the 27 levels of push button choices to get to the right department when you call the cable company? I discovered the secret to this – after answering that you want the call in English or Spanish, then press “0” and it goes right to a human being. Imagine that. I know, it’s amazing - you get to talk to a real person.

    I am sure that those who worked so hard to develop these structures, these online and automated systems, really wanted to help the situation. I mean, let’s be honest, if every time we had a question about the cable bill or the phone bill we had to drive down to the local office, wouldn’t that be a headache too? Sometimes the real issue is finding the best way to connect with those we need to connect with, to get the issue resolved, right? The real issue is in figuring out how to do it, in the best way possible, with the least amount of trial and error. Especially the error.

   We are blessed with a group of young adults, known as Fusion, that want to give back by serving. They want to show their faith is real by serving others, and have decided to start serving our seniors first. They really want to help with practical needs – lawn work, grocery shopping, house work, etc. So far so good. The difficulty is they don’t know most of the seniors, but they still want to serve them. What they need is a real person. I met with Fusion recently, sharing with them how I would act as a bridge or a door opener to help with connecting the Fusion energy of our young adults with the real needs of our seniors. I will be the real person they need to help bring the two together. 

    This idea of being the real person, the door way or bridge builder is what we are all called to do. When Peter says that we are royal priests – the meaning behind the priest is that of one who serves to bridge a gap between God and man. Not just in the sense of an advocate, but also as a bridge for those coming to Jesus to be able to cross over from darkness to light.

    People everywhere need us to be a real person for them and to them. We need to be the ones that help them connect their real life needs and issues with the one who has the real ability to deal with their real issues. Will you join me to be a real person, to help others find their way home to God?

In Christ we are redeemed, renewed, reconciled, restored. We are healed, adopted, guarded sealed. We are loved, desired, provided for and have an eternal inheritance. In Christ, we are all this and more. Our identity is wrapped up in Jesus Christ. It’s time for the church to take off the blinders to see who we are in Christ, and then to live fully in that knowledge. It’s time to regain our Spiritual Identity in Jesus Christ.

I was off last week, which was my scheduled week of vacation. I had some say to me - "be sure you get some down time", which sounded like a great idea.  My response was - "I will. I am going to do something very theraputic. I am going to paint the interior of the house." Trust me, that was not what they meant when they said down time.

The house looks great, but if you had told me that I would spend the entire week doing nothing but patching over nail holes, and painting - I wouldn't have believed you. Also, there was the issue of having to prime over the areas of "previous owner extravagance with color choices". If you've been to our house, you know we had three room that were painted school bus yellow. Well a good coat of primer, and a second coat of paint and as the old song says - schools out forever!