notes and pics of thanks

Sarah, Lindsay and Jordan doing windows!

Today, traditionally, is preparation day here at Maul Hall. Some years ago, due to overlapping commitments, we celebrated our family feast on Friday, the day afterThanksgiving. The reasons may have gone away, but the tradition continues. Consequently, we have one more day to get ready for tomorrow’s deluge of family, friends, and gratitude.

Tuesday I drove to Orlando to pick up three of our nieces for the coveted, “Aunt Bekah Work-Camp” experience. This year Sarah got to join her older cousins and pitched in like a trooper. It’s a mixture, of course, of fun and helping-out, and it’s a joy to have the girls on board.

Rebekah teaching marbles

MORE LOANER KIDS! Then, to give the festive atmosphere more variety, Micah and Liam Black spent the afternoon with us too. So, while the girls cleaned windows and polished silver, Rebekah offered a marbles workshop, consulted in block-building, and supervised some kind of a NASCAR event in the back hallway. I was in charge of golf in the garden, snacks, and then (wish I’d thought of this earlier) raking in the side yard.

But it was my morning experience that gave me pause. I’ll share more about this when the project comes on-line, but the short-story is I had an opportunity to share an important message with the community and I fear that I fell far short.

Don Ashley filming me

NEWS: Let me explain. The Osprey Observer newspaper is running an article on my new-ish book, 10 Life-Charged Words: real faith for men(Upper Room Books, 2012). The editor asked me to come in for a video interview to support the story. The video is supposed to be about what it’s like to be a “local author.”

The videographer, Don Ashley, does excellent work, and he obviously knows what he’s doing. But I felt my presentation was stuck in a stiff, “preachy” mode, and the last thing I want to do is to come off as one more overly pious Christian putting another brick in the growing wall between this broken world and the Good News that will heal.

We’ll just have to see how it looks when he’s finished editing.

Best pic of the day: Liam helping welcome our first Christmas packages!

JOY: I guess what’s good is how conscious I’m becoming of the need to articulate the truth about what it means to follow Jesus. Today, the official THANKSGIVING DAY, I’m grateful for so much, and it’s all because of God’s great mercy, grace and love.

- DEREK