Meep

Thankfulness

A few weeks ago at Togethership Caleb handed out $10 gift cards to each of us. The cards were purchased with the offering money Togethership had generated over the previous several weeks. The plan was to hand out the cards to local homeless people that we would come in contact with in the coming days.

Since then I had wanted to be rather selective of who I gave my gift card to. Not really understanding why, but I wanted there to be some sort of connection between the person and I before I handed out the gift.

Today, Molly and I took a walk downtown around triangle park and the surrounding streets. We decided today was going to be the day we would offer a free meal to someone.

After walking around downtown, there was a homeless man who as he was walking past us, reached out and gave me a high five. It was a little awkward, but we decided to offer him my gift card.

Upon handing the card to him, his face lit up and offered many thanks for the free gift. It was a beautiful moment as he realized he was being offered something free of charge and all he had to do was reach out his hand and accept it.

There was another man walking a few feet from this gentleman who we wanted to give our other gift card to. This time there was a much different response to the gift. The man barely thanked us for the gift card. It was awkward this time as well, but in a different way.

Instead of offering his thanks for the gift, he took the card and continued walking past us. A few seconds later he was coming back toward us trying to chase me down. I was confused about what he could possibly say to us; but he looked down at the gift card and asked me how much it was worth. I told him the amount and immediately he turned around and headed for this other man who was sitting enjoying the fountains.

At that moment I could tell he was looking to pawn the gift card for some quick cash.

How sad, I thought, it must be that he was offered a present, a warm meal, but he would rather trade that in for something that would ultimately destroy his body. Someone had taken the time to care for his needs but he quickly threw that away, simply looking for the next chance to fulfill his fix.

However, it would almost be foolish of me to judge him in such a manner. Today was a simple but powerful reminder of how God has blessed me with so many gifts yet sometimes I push them aside and neglect to give thanks for them.

I really love the Scripture found in 2 Corinthians 9:15 - Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Culverism Contest

A couple of weeks ago Culvers Restaurant put out a nationwide contest looking for clever "culverisms" to advertise on their cups, fry bags, and other product. Culverisms are short, catchy sayings that "inspire people to want to come back to Culvers again and again."

So, I decided to take a stab at the $100 contest prize and submitted a rather original culverism:

Culvers fries are a crinkle cut above the rest.

Yesterday my manager told me I had been selected as one of 20 entries nationwide and now receive a $100 gift card to the retailer of my choice. I have no idea where to get it to or what to spend it on. Any suggestions?!

Cincinnati Trip

I just got back from an exciting weekend in Cincinnati. Friday the family drove up to take in some Skyline Chili and a Reds game.



TheReds lost 5-9 after giving up 4 runs in the 10th inning off our closer who is getting paid $8.6 million this season.

We were treated to some sweet postgame fireworks though, so that made the already half-priced tickets well worth it.

Following the fireworks I was dropped off at my good friend Kyle Leadingham's house. I got to spend the night there with him and woke up to watch 6 hours of Olympic coverage and shoot some hoops in his driveway the next afternoon.



We waited for our girls to come to the house (Molly drove up from Lexington and Kristin came over later) to eat dinner with Kyle's parents. Then the four "kids" went to the Reds game on Saturday night.

Much thanks to Joe Leadingham and Great American Insurance Company for the awesome seats! A second thanks out to Bronson Arroyo for his designed t-shirt, given out to the first 20,000 fans in attendance!



The Reds lost Saturday night's game 3-1 and recorded a measly 5 hits on their way to the cellar in the Central Division. Needless to say the Reds are becoming a joke.

But a great time was had by all, including teaching Molly how to score a Major League baseball game. I'll score that as a work in progress...

Divine Romance

Well somehow I stumbled across this song, I believe it was while riding in the car one day listening to Air1. Anyway, I did some research on this singer, Phil Wickham. He is from California and currently lives in Rancho Bernardo, California. He has toured with such Christian bands as MercyMe, Audio Adrenaline, and David Crowder. His website can be found here: http://philwickham.com/
Hope you enjoy!



I really love this video, especially because the concert is taking place inside Angels stadium in Anaheim, CA!

Convocation

I decided to go ahead and begin recording my thoughts on a blog. Not that any of my thoughts are meaningful or insightful, but at least this way I can force myself to try and think at a level that is interesting to other people. How am I doing so far? I look forward to sharing more in the future days, weeks, and months....