New Home!

Warriors of 'Troit,

3 of 4 have migrated to our new home in Canton, MI from which we'll be commuting to Detroit for camp. Spencer will be joining Chad, Gabe, and I tomorrow after returning from Oregon.  We are thrilled to be allowed to stay in the same place together.  Our host parents, Mr. and Mrs. Heck have already given us tours of the house and the town and there is an encouraging aura of community all over.  We have clicked seamlessly.  Mr. Heck has a very compatible sense of humor (and I am nearly in fear for my health preparing for the comedy act that he and Spencer will be), and Mrs. Heck is very generous and sweet.  It's easy to feel in control and optimistic about our situation now, but a great many things come to mind at this revelation:

Are we remaining humble?
As we clown around with Mr. Heck, or take advantage of the freedom from our own parents, are we doing what we are doing to inspire a Godly joy in others, or are we being fools. (Proverbs 15:21)

Are we remaining servants?
Are we seeking ease of living or our own pleasure, or simply being lazy?  This needs to be a large focus of mine. (Proverbs 6:6)  We will only be a great harm to young minds if we are imploring them to live a servant's life that we are not living.

Are we remaining Christ-focused?
As simple as everyday things can seem, they may be the battlegrounds that are most often lost out of complacency. (James 4:13-17)  There are some many things that God has enabled us to do that we get lost trying to seek the most extravagant.  I am always looking for "The New" especially in my faith.  But by sprinting to the outer reaches of the globe I've trampled some really beautiful, really delicate, virtues.  The real smart guys out there are stopping to smell the roses (or do other mundane things well)

Are we being quiet?
Fools being loudmouths has got to be one of the bigger themes in Proverbs (17:28 for one).  Quieting ourselves does a number of things for God and for us.  It cuts out the middle man of us for those who need to hear God more directly, it allows God to teach and use us more effectively, and it gives Christian-critics less to justify their God-separated lives with.  On the level of the individual, we find peace faster, get to be (or at least appear) like the mature person we'd like to see ourselves become, and we catch far more of the show that is God's Creation

Jesus was never sarcastic, his disciples weren't putting tacks on each others chairs, and Moses didn't come down from Sinai with the Ten Best Jokes tablets.  Pray for our understanding of the mission that has been entrusted to us.

That being said, this mission undeniably involves a great deal of loving and welcoming kids that may receive very little or none of such tangible Godliness.  Perhaps a strong prayer then is thanks that God's joke-book is a good one...



...a very good one.

Prone to wander,

Tim, Chad, and Gabe