Posted tagged ‘food’

« Words from WW Blog home page

Winning Halfway

June 22, 2024

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5)

I received an email from Starbucks yesterday, informing me that I was a winner in their Summer Sweepstakes Contest. The grand prize was a trip for two to Costa Rica. That would be awesome! I’ve wanted to visit there.

However, when I opened the email, I discovered that “my prize” was fifty percent off one of their drinks, called a Refresher. Wait a minute! Half-off? That means I would be giving them more money in order to receive my prize. I wonder if the prize was a one-way ticket to Costa Rica, but the winner would have to get themselves back home again?

I’ve had those scam emails before that tell me I’ve won anything from a chainsaw to an air fryer to a tool set. I’ve suave enough to not open those. No one ever called me a brainiac, but I ain’t no “dumb attack” either. And this WAS from Starbucks, the Starbucks that offers half-off drinks on most days between noon and 6 P.M.

It seems that winning halfway also means losing halfway. Even more than a half-free Starbucks drink, our culture has a way of giving us half the story, to focus on the beginning and not the end, to show the happy faces of the new car buyers without hinting at the reverse side of the excessive car payment that the sellers will expect even when the vehicle is in for a major repair.

Wisdom sees the carrot dangling before the trap and considers the costs. Wisdom sees the long-range consequences hiding behind the short-term thrill. Wisdom sees the tears of misery in the background of the thirst for money.

Now, I realize winning half a Starbucks drink is not on the same grief level as a lottery ticket buyer who goes hogwild at the 7-11 because he sees the image of Shangri-La attached to the jackpot amount. However, the concept is the same. Half-free in order to cost you something.

Last night, wisdom took a nap as I was looking at a book on Amazon. It was only a few dollars…okay, ten! Ten is only a few more than a few. So I hit the order button. After all, I have Amazon Prime and free shipping. Immediately upon ordering the book that is just a few more than a few, Amazon informed me that other shoppers who bought the same book also ordered the following. Pictures of four other books showed up, so I ordered one of them. By the time I had exited out of Amazon, my “few more than a few” book had become $38.95. Don’t tell Carol, although she usually reads my blog so I need to work on my pitiful look of repentance. I’m trying to think of a way I can blame it on wisdom napping on me, but…okay, I had a dumb attack!

I think of the sins of the flesh that Paul lists in Galatians 5 and most of them are actions that seemed right at the time or brought satisfaction for a moment, but consequences later on. Half free and half unbelievably costly.

My life story has been peppered with costly seasoning, like procrastinating doing classwork when I was in college and paying the cost of an abysmal GPA, or eating two Big Macs and suffering the indigestion a couple of hours later, or placing the plastic down on the counter too much in a short amount of time and then paying the high interest rate on the remaining balance our checking account said we couldn’t pay.

I’ve been suckered into lunging for the dangling carrot many times. However, I’m thankful that wisdom has shown itself more and more as my life has slowed down. (Yes, I know! There was that Amazon thing last night! I admit, I’m like a kid in a candy store when I click on Amazon.)

I think I’ll try this on the baristas at my local Starbucks. I think I’ll tell whoever is making the drinks to put only the free part in the glass and leave the rest empty.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Losing Those You Haven’t Seen

February 9, 2024

“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” (Proverbs 17:17)

Another high school friend of mine, Jeff Grubb, died this week. We went to the same church, were in the same youth group, went to Giiovanni’s Pizza after Sunday night church, and razzed one another in ways that made us roar with laughter. Good guy! Funny, smart, and a friend.

The last time I saw him was probably in the late 70s.

I throw that in there because it’s part of the struggle and, unfortunately, the reality. As our lives get launched, we lose touch with most of the people that we grew up with, people that chiseled briefly into the sculpture of our life. Growing up in Ohio, but then going to college and seminary in Illinois, and then taking my first three ministry positions in Michigan before finishing in Colorado…the distance from my growing up roots always seemed to get greater instead of less.

Jeff is the third person who was a part of our youth group who has been called Home to Glory in the past year. It’s that stretch of our journey where the road becomes less and less populated with our traveling companions.

My dad had that experience. Living to be just shy of ninety, all of his close friends had preceded him in death. His last couple of years were a lonely stretch of road.

In less than three months, there will be a seven in front of my age. The number ‘7’ seems to be looking behind itself at all of the country it has already traveled. Most of the road is behind it, and there aren’t too many miles in front of it before reaching the exit ramp.

At 70, a person realizes, if he’s clueless enough not to grasp it already, that the important things in life have nothing to do with Las Vegas, soap operas, who the Bengals are going to draft first, or how upper-class the make and model of his car is. Those are irrelevant, the fluff of an ungrounded life.

The important things in life are rooted in relationships. Spiritual, emotional, intellectual, loving, and entwined relationships. Even the relationships with people you haven’t seen in 45 years are priceless.

Quite frankly, that category of long, lost friends is over-crowded. Facebook and other forms of social media have brought many of them back to us in a weird, sorta authentic, but superficial way. We’re able to see what’s going on in many of their lives, pictures of proms, parades, and promotions, but it’s different. Kinda like getting a postcard from the Grand Canyon. It’s different than actually seeing the place with your own eyes. Seeing a post from an old friend on Facebook is not the same as sitting in Giovanni’s and razzing one another on a Sunday night.

It causes an ache in my soul to know of the loss of someone who used to be on our church bus and it also makes me treasure what has been.

That being said, my journey this week to Ohio to see my sister, brother, nieces, nephews, and their extended families will end with a reunion at Skyline Chili in Cincinnati with two men who were a part of my college days period. I saw one of them about three years ago, but I have not seen the other one since 1974. Before I get on a plane heading back to Colorado, I’ll spend a couple of precious hours with them, reminiscing about the times we spent together and feeding the aching hunger in my soul for the old days and old friends.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Uninvited Guest

January 10, 2024

This morning at my neighborhood Starbucks, a homeless woman in a wheelchair came in. The staff treated her with respect, offered to help her get into the restroom, and gave her a cup of hot coffee.

At 6AM on Wednesday mornings at this particular Starbucks, a group of four to six men meet. They pull two tables together, sit there, and gab as they drink coffee for an hour. It’s the one day during the week when I occupy a table at the other end of the cafe, because of the closeness of my usual seat to them.

However, on this Wednesday they had an uninvited guest, the homeless woman. When she exited the restroom, she pulled her wheelchair up close to the men’s tables and scooted over into one of the empty seats that was awaiting the arrival of one of their regulars. The dynamics of the group changed at that point. What was intended to be another round of their typical Wednesday morning chattering had the result of scattering. After about 15 minutes of the woman sitting with them at their tables and looking like she was feeling right at home, the group of four men took their leave. It was only 6:20.

Before her arrival, she had had an encounter with a couple of law enforcement officers outside the cafe, had wheeled herself away, but then had come back. At about 6:40, one of the officers came back, had a chat with her, and then guided her to the exit doors. I held the door open for her to maneuver her wheelchair to the outside. Although I’m not involved in the field of mental health, because of her chattering to herself and the chaotic state of the restroom after she had used it, I had the feeling that she had some form of mental illness.

And then, five minutes after her exit, the group of four men came back and gathered around their tables once again to resume the weekly chatter.

I considered what I had seen and heard. What did the situation communicate? Why was I left with a feeling of uncomfortableness?

First, the positive. The Starbucks staff was kind and considerate. They showed hospitality to the guest who had been burdened with multiple life challenges. They did what they could. Even the group of four men was respectful, but when it was apparent that she was seeing her visit to their tables as more than a “Hi! How are you?”, they made their escape.

Most of us are uncomfortable with intrusions into our normal living routines. We gravitate toward the familiar, the expected, and the planned-on. The problems of our society and world are so often simply seen as problems…out there, somewhere else, to be handled by others. Whether it be a wheelchair-bound homeless woman, a migrant crisis, a mass shooting, or even an autoworkers’ strike, we are often at a loss as to how to respond. We crave normalcy. We cringe about the irregular.

Truthfully, the Starbucks encounter with the homeless lady was a no-win situation. She wasn’t asking for help and was probably simply looking for a place to get warm for a while. Although we don’t like to admit it, the only answers we have for some of the situations in life are to be kind, respectful, and seek the Lord’s help in knowing how to respond.

Jesus was criticized for hanging out with “sinners.” He was scoffed at for healing the blind, the lame, and the ostracized lepers. For us, when the unexpected enters our arena of life or sits down at our table, it requires prayer and then a question to consider: What would Jesus do?

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Condolences and Companions

September 8, 2013

WORDS FROM W.W.                                                           September 8, 2013

 

 

     Going through the loss of my mom has been a journey. It has allowed me to see the despair of Jesus in his Garden of Gethsemane darkness. He was utterly and completely alone. His disciples had eyelids heavier than a Sunday morning Baptist listening to a long-winded monotone preacher.

Jesus had no one. No shoulder to lean on, no one to embrace him. No one to pray with him or hold his hand.

And I now know in a very real way how difficult it would have been to go through an experience of loss by myself. The last few days of grieving and mourning has included a long list of journeying companions.

Let me tell you…the kitchen counter at Mom and Dad’s house has resembled a food buffet line without the sneeze guards! Fried chicken, lasagna, meat and cheese tray, veggie tray, vegetable beef soup, chicken casserole, chicken casserole #2, salad, potato salad, cole slaw, chip dip, potato casserole, peach cobbler, apple pie, chocolate cake, brownies, chocolate chip cookies…you get the picture? Food is a consoling agent! Somehow grief is made easier with a chicken leg in your hand.

And the flowers! People sent enough flowers to fill a nursery. Mom loved flowers. Dad’s yard is a picture of gardening excellence. Flowers are expression of love and concern that bring a hint of beauty to a gray moment of life.

At the visitation before Mom’s funeral service there were a multitude of people who kept streaming in to pay their respects. Everyone knew that Mom’s time had come. In fact, the past couple of years were almost like a second epilogue…one more extra that wasn’t needed. But still the people came to say farewell to Mom, and offer condolences to our family. Former neighbors, church folk, workmates, classmates, distant cousins, and people whose paths had crossed at some time with Mom and Dad. I saw my cousin, Annette, who I had not seen in a good forty years, and my cousins Michelle and Matthew that I wish I could have a week with.

Companions for the journey. Encouragers in the midst of discouraging times.

I’ve had people ask me during my years as a pastor “How do people make it through this who have no faith?” I’d revise that question and make it “how do people make it through this who have no faith or friends?” (Food is a bi-product of having friends!)

My best man, Dave Hughes, came by yesterday for a couple of hours. My former partner in ministry, Artie Powers, journeyed down from West Virginia to the visitation and funeral service. My church in Colorado Springs sent flowers. My good friend, Mike Fairchild, who lives outside of Rochester, New York now, and his brother, Mark, sent flowers.

Companions for the journey.

Which takes me back to Jesus! I can’t imagine walking this road alone. It makes his death walk seem even crueler…that there was no one there for him…and yet he continued. Instead of a shoulder to lean on he had a cross he had to bear.

Categories: Christianity, Community, Death, Faith, Jesus, Parenting, Pastor, Prayer, Story, The Church, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment