Friday's Finds

This week has been a busy one.  It is a weird phenomenon that people are so sensitive about Christmas being a "busy time" that they schedule everything a couple weeks before Christmas so that it's out of the way, only when everyone does that, the second week of December becomes the craziest week of the year.

Case in point:  Using our church as an example, this week our church has held five "Christmas events" even though Christmas is 2 weeks away:  Blue Christmas, Advent night, Staff Christmas Party, Christmas Lights Parade, and the Christmas Cantata.  I don't know how we did it, but we've successfully managed to move Christmas up into mid-December. 

That being said, here's your Friday's Finds for this Christmas weekend:

The Heisman Trophy Ceremony, Saturday night, 8PM, ESPN.  This award is always debatable, and this year is even more interesting, since there really isn't a clear cut favorite to win the award.  Who do I think should win it?  Toby Gerhart.  Who do I think will win it?  Colt McCoy.

Christmas Lights Parade, Downtown Clarkston, Saturday, 6PM.  This 5 block parade will include all kinds of uniquely decorated floats (and children), and is expected to move at a quicker pace with the wind chill for tomorrow night forecasted to be around -88 degrees.

"It's a Wonderful Life", Saturday night, 8PM, NBC.  I've already made mention of this classic in the Super Tuesday blog, but if you're gonna watch a movie this weekend, watch this one.  After all, it is Christmas.

Editors note:  The 611 service project at Grace is meeting at our church at 9:30AM to carpool.  We'll see you there.

The Week Link

Here's the Week Link, a short video teaching about Atheism that will blow your mind.

Set Apart - Peter Rollins

Check in tomorrow for Friday's Finds

Living the H.I. Life (humpday inspiration)

John 5:17

"My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."

There is a line in the T.S. Eliot poem, "The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock" that says:

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker...

There are moments of greatness that all of us have.  We all have peaks of our life that define us, but those peaks fade.  But God is not prone to peaks and valleys.  God does not have good days and bad days, and he does not rest on his laurels.  He's tirelessly working in us and in the world around us.

The thought crossed my mind this morning that if God wanted to take a vacation, to just get away from his creation for a little while so he didn't have to put up with our constant whining, disobedience, and indifference, He would be completely entitled.  But that's not His nature.  He relentlessly pursues us, constantly guides us, and perpetually loves us more than we can comprehend.

Bottom line:  We have moments of greatness, but God has an eternity of greatness, and He's not even close to done with you.

Super Tuesday

Super Tuesday is a tradition here in the good ol' U.S. of A, except that it only happens one Tuesday a year.  Here at the 611 blog, we're gonna build on a good thing, making every Tuesday a Super Tuesday, giving you the reader the opportunity to cast your vote on issues about which you may or may not be passionate.  Please vote by posting a comment below the blog, or by posting your vote on our facebook page.  Today's vote hopefully gets you into the Christmas mood, as we ask the question:  What is the better Christmas movie - It's a Wonderful Life or Love Actually?

The arguments

It's a Wonderful Life - this Christmas tradition of a movie, filmed in 1946, was made iconic by the performance of one Jimmy Stewart, who portrayed the life and the "what might have been" life of George Bailey in Bedford Falls.  He gets special credit in the movie for dancing the Charleston to perfection even as the gym floor he was dancing on opened up into a swimming pool.  And Mr. Potter ranks right up there with the Grinch as one of the best Christmas bad guys of the 20th century.

Love Actually - More of an ensemble cast, Love Actually, filmed in 2003, takes a look at several love story plot lines that all intersect around the Christmas Season.  Two favorite moments from the movie:
-When Rowan Atkinson(formerly of Mr. Bean), takes an inordinate amount of time to wrap a necklace for a man who was buying for his secretary, and not his wife.
-And any moment when Keira Knightley, my future wife, is on screen.

So you decide.  Cast your vote for the better Christmas movie.

The Post Mortem

If you missed 611 last night, then you missed an awesome time.  The Men of Grace, a gospel musical group made up of men who have gone through the program at Grace Center of Hope in Pontiac, MI, came and shared their stories and their musical talents with us last night.  Specifically, the saxophone solo had a couple of us moved almost to tears (Notice I said "almost".  Real men only cry when they crack their femur bone, and fortunately my femur is still in one piece).

There was an interesting side to last night that you might not have caught if you were only there from 6-7PM.  The musical group from Grace only had eight members: four vocalists, one guy who bounced back and forth between vocals and saxophone, one drummer, and one keyboard player.  But when the group arrived an hour before service, there were 15 people who walked in the door together.  When I saw them come in, I was worried that we had accidentally booked a choir, and that we would not have a coffee supply to keep the group sufficiently caffeinated, as they had already performed four times that day.  What I realized was that the seven other people that came who were not performing were there as support.  They had made the trip just to be there for their friends from Grace as they did their thing.

There are tons of awesome, life-changing missions that are happening in our churches and in organizations surrounding us, organizations like GCOH.  I think all of us want to use the "fishes and loaves" we have to do great things.  But the guys from GCOH modeled a pretty cool thing for us last night:  when someone from our community is already taking their "fishes and loaves" and changing the world with them, sometimes the best thing we can do is just be there for them as it happens.  Sometimes our most important role in a faith community is to be cheerleaders of others in our community, minus the outfits, snazzy dance moves, and 14-hour Saturday competitions.