Unexpected Blessing

By Pastor Troy

Wow, there are a lot of things to write about this week. I think I will share our Christmas Eve story. I know you are probably braced for the heart wrenching story of feeding the entire downtown homeless population. Not quite there yet.

We have started a family tradition to fondue on Christmas Eve. This is certainly the longest meal of the year and the girls love cooking their meat one piece at a time. We had visions of a relaxing evening of eating, sharing and ripping open presents. Somehow the vision was never fulfilled.

We met some friends down at Crown Center to go ice skating and then made a few stops on the way home. Our final stop was the grocery store to get some ingredients for the fondue and also for Christmas day. We decided on the Wal-Mart Super Center and saw several employees congregated at the entrance and then we saw people walking away…like “there is no room in the Inn” type of walking away. It was 6:02 pm and the store was closed!

I have to be honest, we panicked immediately. We HAVE to find a grocery store or we’re dead (well not dead, but eating cereal for Christmas dinner is not all that appealing). Next closest, Price Chopper…Hyvee….Another Super Center…..Apple Market….we finally ended up at K-Mart which of course is not the place you want to grocery shop for Christmas dinner unless your menu is bologna sandwiches. In the end, we decided to hold on the fondue until Christmas day, pay a visit to the Petrillo Pantry for our final grocery needs and then go out to eat.

This is not an exaggeration because of our procrastination. We had the best meal at Carabba’s! The food was honestly the best we have tasted on a Holiday. The waiter was great….since it was so late, we were his only table so he joined us at the booth for Christmas Eve dinner. The nice thing is he kept bringing out more food (for free…Merry Christmas to me). We ended our two hour meal with free desert and no cleanup.

We would have never planned it this way, however we had such a great time I have already shared this story with several people. I absolutely love telling this story, because it was a time when we wanted to have a nice meal and our expectations were totally exceeded. We experienced a huge blessing! This Sunday, the title of the sermon is, “Proclaim the Glory of the Lord” and we will each be challenged to broadcast our spiritual blessings with those we meet for the glory of God. I hope you can take some time to review John 12:20-36 and also to spend some time in prayer for God to bless our services.

In the spirit of Christmas and the challenge of a New Year ahead!

A Mess Worth Mentioning

By Pastor Troy

A few nights ago I was able have the value of “mother” reaffirmed to me loud and clear. Leigh-Ann was participating in a ladies night out, and I was participating in a Daddy’s night with the girls. Everything went smoothly for the first five minutes. I had put some noodles on the stove for Mac and Cheese and walked away only to hear them screaming that it was boiling over. Shortly after this incident, I was cutting up some vegetables for soup and Alexa wanted to help. This is a dilemma….there are never enough daddy nights, and she certainly knows how to get at my heart, so within moments I cave into the pressure and under very careful supervision allow her to help me cut up the vegetables. As you can imagine, there are certainly more sensible activities for my six year old than handing her a knife and allowing her to help. Everything went great for several minutes and then quicker then in a flash her hand and my knife formally met, and this is when things really began to digress.

I have certainly seen bigger cuts in my lifetime, however it did draw blood and that opened up a hydrant of tears. Fortunately, I kept my composure and we went upstairs to find the band-aids. In the meantime Alexa is holding a piece of toilet paper on her finger bawling her eyes out. The interesting thing about this “mishap” is that the tears came in waves. Everything would be okay and then all of a sudden it sounded like I had the knife out again. For the next two hours things would find some sense of order and then all of a sudden, “My finger huuuuuurts!”

In order to get some kind of order in the house I had both girls sit on the stools at the counter while I finished my soup recipe. Just as I could feel a wave of calmness passing over the room, out of the corner of my eye I saw something moving at light speed….Sophie, my three year old’s arm had collided with a full glass of water that hit the floor and shattered. Wet glass was everywhere. “Don’t move!” My mind is racing as I imagine mommy walking in the door to see bloody footprints and fingerprints all over the house.

It was at this moment with vegetables, water and broken glass strewn all over the kitchen that I realized that I had to do something about the clean up. The ONLY solution I could think of was the shop vac. And boy, did it work well…I felt like I was operating the machine on Cat in the Hat.

What baffles me most about this whole evening is the range of emotions that we all experienced within seconds. We went from laughing and smiling to screaming and scared. As I think more about that evening, I realized it is just like life on fast forward. Normally there are minutes and days in between the highs and lows of our emotions, however that fateful night it was merely seconds. This experience of extreme emotions is documented in the Scripture passage for this Sunday, in John 12:9-19, we call the “Triumphal Entry.” Within a few days Jesus will drive the roller coaster of the people’s emotions from the highs of waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna to the lows of watching Roman Soldiers pound nails into His hands and feet. I hope we can each learn some practical lessons to help us “Find Stability in the Shadow of the Spectacular.”

I hope to see you on Sunday -- We have an exciting service planned that will strengthen your heart and challenge your level of spirituality.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Advice

By Pastor Troy

Since Christmas will be here before you know it, I want to dedicate this e-mail to sharing some wisdom in regard to family times during the Holidays. There are a few things I have learned by experience this past week with my in-laws in town:

Pressure creates diamonds – the more difficult the situation the better you will be as a result. Embrace the pressure to have everything ready perfect and on time (please notice that this is dripping with sarcasm).

Late is not great – if the family is waiting on you for dinner, even an accident on I-70 will not be a good enough excuse.

Safety first – never, ever leave your father-in-law alone in the car in a dangerous neighborhood…you can ask him for more details…

Respect the expected – a GREAT last minute idea that disrupts everyone’s plans never ends up GREAT.

Never choose the restaurant – this is a lose-lose scenario. Absolute perfect service and food is always expected and even the smallest fault will find its way back to the source….”Whose idea was this anyway?”

Don’t ask dumb questions – like, “have we taken you down to the Plaza to see the lights” (especially when the answer is “yes, for the last 8 years…”)

Learn to love the broken record – Patriots…Red Sox….Celtics….Red Sox….Patriots….Patriots….Tom Brady…..Randy Moss….Patriots….Patriots Defense….Playoffs….Red Sox….Patriots….Red Sox…..Celtics…Patriots….Ok, I’m dead!

Thank God for all His blessings – It may sound like I am digging out of a hole, however, I am VERY thankful for the family that God has blessed me with and this season is a great time to express heartfelt appreciation for those closest to us. I am EXTREMELY grateful for Leigh-Ann, Alexa, Sophia, Pepper and every other family member (especially my in-laws) and friends.

I am wishing you the very best this Christmas Season. It is our privilege to remember the story of Jesus coming to earth. Just as the Apostle Paul said, “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

This Sunday we will have the opportunity to worship God through our prayers, singing, communion and application of the sermon from John 12:1-8.

Into the Winter

By Pastor Troy

Yesterday we received our first snow fall of the year. I write this as if you haven’t noticed :). Even though I am from Minnesota (Go Vikings!), I have recently begun to dislike the snow. I mean, at first when the large flakes were coming down I watched them out the window and they looked so cool and reminded me of so many things I like to do in the snow….snow tubing, skiing, ice skating, hot chocolate by the fire and as my mind continued to drift I was suddenly shocked back into reality by a siren.

Then my thoughts immediately went to the amount of traffic that will need to get home at the rate of 5 M.P.H… I continued to digress as I thought about how much I hate getting into a cold car, brushing off my windows, getting snow in my shoes and then feeling the cold air on my face as the snow melts on my feet. If this isn’t enough, there have been plenty of accidents out there to keep all the body shops in business for several more months.

So as I look outside today, on a cold, dreary Friday afternoon, I am struggling with my personal outlook on the weather outside. I want to make a statement that I can’t stand snow anymore and am ready for spring! And just as I am about to take the plunge and make this powerful declaration, I am reminded of the weather this past August. Remember when it was at or above 100 degrees for so long? Remember what it felt like the second you walked outside and started to sweat? Remember how it feels for your organs to literally cook in the sun? Sitting down in the car would hurt because it was like 125 degrees inside with the sun beating down.

Now I have a dilemma, I can’t make up my mind about what I hate most, cold weather or hot weather. So this brings me to a startling realization: I only like perfect weather…somewhere between 65 and 75 degrees unless I am going swimming then it can be in the 90’s. If I am running I would like it in the upper 50’s. Overnight, it could drop down into the low 60’s and if possible I would like to keep the humidity under 10%. Not only do I like perfect weather, I like perfect food, perfect people, perfect drivers, perfect meteorologists, perfect everyone and everything. Unfortunately, this is not realistic. It is also not God’s plan….at least in this life.

The past few Sunday’s we have studied the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. His sisters and their friends were most upset that life had not treated them perfectly, as they had hoped and expected. They were hurt, upset and getting angry, because, just like the recent weather, life was not perfect! This Sunday we are planning to take a close look at what happens when we recognize that “perfect plans” are defined differently by God than they are by us. Sometimes what we think would be perfect cannot even compare to what God is going to do in our lives. When Mary and Martha recognized the fact that God ALWAYS has a better plan they responded with extravagant love. You will not want to miss the time we spend in John 12:1-8, as well as time singing, partaking in communion and worshipping together.

I am really looking forward to this Sunday and I hope you will be part of the excitement….even if it is cold.