Last night was the second ever Axis Bowl, and we had a blast! It is great to experience the fact that Christians can have fun and enjoy a good time without the need for drugs and alcohol. The help we did have, though, was a combination of competitions that culminated in leaf-blower powered hover-boards. Plywood, plastic, staples, duck tape, and pvc piping can do wonderful things when put together in the right way! Whether it was hovering slightly above the ground, getting nailed with a dodgeball, winning a wii tennis match, or whatever - it was more than just games. James 1:17 states that "every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights..." It is cool to know that Jesus was in the midst of playing and laughing and singing, because it was all good. Sometimes we don't think about Jesus as one to throw his head back and laugh or to play and have fun - but He was the one that placed our humor and sense of adventure and healthy competition inside of us!
Other than announcing the winners of the evening (who happened to be the seniors), we ended the evening with a thought about prayer. Jesus taught us to pray to "Abba" - to "Dad" (Matt. 6:9), and not to pray long meaningless, babbling prayers, but to pray to Dad about what's on our hearts--good and bad. We had a blast last night, and we spent the evening playing in the presence of God for the glory of God, and we talked to Him about it and thanked Him for it! Please don't get caught in boring, monotonous prayers that become automatic and you don't think about them. Kind of like this one..."Lord, please bless this food to the nourishment of my body..." Chances are you've prayed that before your meal...and I'm not saying that's wrong to pray...but why do you pray it? Are you afraid it might not nourish you? (Isn't food, by definition, nourishing?) It's kind of like praying..."Lord, please bless this soap to the cleanliness of my body" before you take a shower! :) So you now have my permission to show the world that Christians have fun, exciting lives; and you also have my permission to smirk next Thursday when someone prays for the food at Thanksgiving dinner!
CIY Pics!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
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2 comments:
I found your comments about the meal time prayer intriguing. I don't disagree but I would like to hear more. I would agree that the "bless this food to nourish our bodies" line is so predictable and automatic that it does become boring. However, what should we do as a family that sits down together sometimes for the first time all day to take a deep breath and look across the table at each other? That is when we show respect and reverence to God by asking his blessing before we partake. In a resturant I always looked at it as being a good witness but I can also see the possible "they think they are better that us" attitude a non-believer may get by a public prayer as well. I don't know...I certainly agree with boring and redundant, I guess i'd like to hear more on the reverence and respect part of it. Is it ok not to pray before a meal or do we just need to be more creative and real? I'd love to hear more comments on this subject. Thanks for bringing it up!
Oh, absolutely - we should definitely pray before a meal--that's a great practice to be in. I am just challenging the monotony of recited, automatic, meaningless prayers. I am challenging us to actually use our brains as we talk to God, and truly, genuinely thank Him for blessing us with the food, family, etc. The idea for me is nothing more than a wake-up call to be real with Jesus. Hope that clarifies! :)
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