Oh, the places we can run!

So, the month of March has come and (nearly) gone. This has been a busy one for Heather and I!

This month has been such an encouraging one for us, though. We've been nearly non-stop on the road, and we've covered more miles in March than we did in December, January and February combined. What a great time this has been.

We started the month with a great visit from our good friends Brad and Jen Ward. What a blast we had in Florida with them. We got in some ocean kayaking and surfing...and of course some interesting and perfectly timed van-trouble. Thanks for blessing us guys!

Then my parents came down to Florida to visit. This trip was well-timed with the coming of Major League Baseball Spring Training. We followed the Cardinals around Florida from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic Coast and then to the Disney Coast. What a great thing to get to do with my family! Thanks Mom and Dad and Heather Mae and Justin! We love you!

We left from Orlando to start a two-week long support raising trip in the middle of March. We'll be wrapping up this trip tomorrow with two final meetings. After tomorrow's appointments, we will have met with 20 churches in 15 days. Heather and I have been so encouraged as we've visited these churches. We hope we've been encouraging to them also! We've met great churches, eaten some great food and stayed with some amazing people. We're so thankful for the friendships that God has brought together in this time! By the way, we learned a new game called Mexican Train Dominoes. Incredible. Let's play sometime soon.

Also, in the middle of this trip, we made a quick visit to Illinois for my great-grandpa's funeral. Our schedule worked out just perfect that we were able to make the drive without skipping any appointments. We got to visit with family, pay our respects to my great-grandpa, and see some great friends in Springfield. We never expected to get to see Illinois before May, or even August, of this year! But, before we knew it, we were in Illinois, and then gone again.

Of course, we've spent this two weeks living out of our car, mooching off of people, and even stealing a shower from a closed state park. You might say this is the life I've dreamed of!

One more thing, we had a much-needed break from everything on this past Monday with some friends from Florida who we met up with in Tennessee. We got the chance to do some hiking and we tried our first hand at rock climbing! I think I've found a new favorite sport. I've already begun eyeing a harness for my future endeavors. (Heather didn't do too badly either!)

So, the month is finished, we've spent a good amount of time in 5 different states. We've traveled well over 4,000 miles. We've been completely worn out. And we've been completely blessed. Thank God for the privilege of the life and friends He has given us!

Later guys,
Matt

P.S. We also tried out this great service Cracker Barrell offers. They let you rent audio books to listen to on any long drives you might have, and return them for a complete refund minus a 2 or 3 dollar weekly user fee. Heather and I have finished 3 books, one on Tony La Russa, one by President Jimmy Carter, and a particularly cheeky fiction novel about a guy that gets engaged in Australia in a crazy turn of events. Give the service a shot if you're spending any lengthy time on the road!

Reminded by Tradition

Drew recently posted an article that got me thinking about tradition again. For the most part in the past few years, I think I have fallen more and more to a distrust or discontent with traditions. I think my unrest has stemmed less from the tradition itself, and more from the people's mindset in practicing the tradition.

For years and years, I've heard of people practicing Lent. I went to school with people that practiced it every year of their lives, but often it wasn't anything more than a hassle to them, or an irritating inconvenience. More often than not, it was about something they could complain about to their friends. For instance, one of them would say, "Man, I want to go home tonight to play video games, but I can't because I gave them up for Lent!" OK, that may not be the best example, but it was more about the action they were performing than it was about the purpose of Lent itself.

Again, I go back to Isaiah 58. Check out the first half of the chapter.

Isaiah 58

True and False Worship

1 “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.
Shout aloud! Don’t be timid.
Tell my people Israel[a] of their sins!
2 Yet they act so pious!
They come to the Temple every day
and seem delighted to learn all about me.
They act like a righteous nation
that would never abandon the laws of its God.
They ask me to take action on their behalf,
pretending they want to be near me.
3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
and you don’t even notice it!’
“I will tell you why!” I respond.
“It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
you keep oppressing your workers.
4 What good is fasting
when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
will never get you anywhere with me.
5 You humble yourselves
by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
Do you really think this will please the Lord?

These people, God's people, were doing what He asked. They followed the tradition of offering sacrifices and fasting, and going to the Temple to pray, and bowing their heads in penance, just as God asked them to do. But they totally missed the point of those things, the point of humbling themselves before God so they might see how much they needed Him.

And so what good is tradition if people don't know why they do it, or if people don't do it for the purpose traditions like Lent should be followed?

The natural step that humans take when they want to correct a problem is to go to the complete other extreme. This is why many non-denominational churches, saying they were "returning to the Bible", did away completely with traditions such as Lent. They see the problem of traditions that no longer hold any meaning. Why even do them? Even if they have been around for hundreds of years, if they've lost all meaning what use are they? Is it better to drop something that has been around forever than to keep doing something mindlessly when you don't even know the purpose. Maybe so. They seem to be filth in God's eyes.

But we see now that some of these churches are returning to traditions, like the ones Drew referenced in Advent and Lent. Isn't this exciting?! They are returning to the traditions that they now see as valuable and full of meaning again!

To me, it's exciting to see these churches that perform these actions out of love and respect for a God Who they need and love, and desire to remind themselves about constantly. Afterall, that's why God established those traditions for His people so long ago. They were meant to remind His people of how He had rescued them from danger and destruction into a life that was full and abundant in Him.

Thanks for the thought provoking post, Drew!

Later guys,
Matt

You don't want to mess with.. Chuck

This was an advertisement on a website that I saw today. Hilarious.


































Later guys,
Matt