Our Valentine’s Day of Compassion

This past weekend was the worldwide celebration of Valentine’s Day. In an effort to rebel against this silly holiday where notions of love commonly defined by media – we proceeded to continue our annual Valentine’s Day of Compassion, where members of our congregation split across the East Bay and visited convelesent homes, and transitional/shelter homes. In these places are members of society that are often neglected and overlooked, we brought our love to these people and experienced so much fun in doing so.

Each of us made 3-4 frames with versus of what true love is: God’s gift of Jesus to man. We sang some songs and danced in front of these senior citizens who seemed to have really enjoyed our presence. Jenn gave a short message on God’s love for us and we ended the time with hanging out with the residents. You don’t need to wait till next year to join us, we go very often so keep an eye out for that!

Here’s some of our prep work…

No Sunday Christians

This past Sunday, the staff of Kairos and ISM were responsible for prepping our “Healthy Snacks” that were provided after worship service. The snacks consisted of fruit and crackers with carrots. Yup, definitely was too healthy. But if you had some of the apricots or plums last Sunday, did you wonder about who did the washing and where the washing took place? Well, the strong women of Kairos washed and scrubbed several hundred apricots in the courtyard of Willard with a hose and strainer. And while washing, they had disturbed an ant farm which quickly invaded their washing process. Millions and millions of ants on top of ants.

Sue defends plum against onslaught of angry army ants.

During the service, Pastor Ed of Gracepoint Fellowship Church, finished off the four part series called Conversations based on the text of John 4, where Jesus converses with the Samaritan Woman. Pastor Ed challenged the notion of the Sunday Christian. A concept that one will act “Christianly” on Sundays and quite differently the rest of the week. This really reminded me of an earlier message that Pastor Ed gave when I was still an undergrad at Cal. He described many Christians who consider God and religion as just a side dish at a buffet along with many other side dishes to choose from in life. And this person just goes through a compartmentalized notion of life – not really dedicated to anything. I remembered this message so vividly because it described my life and got me thinking about my claim that Jesus was Lord over all aspects of my life versus how I actually lived out my life – two very different concepts. Anyhow, the concept of the Sunday Christian ought to be an oxymoron for Christians.

I’m so thankful to be with so many friends and examples of Christians that give not only their time on Sunday mornings to wash plums but really open up their lives and schedules throughout the full week to meet and love people in following the footsteps of Christ. And as I try to do the same, I find that my life is much richer and fuller as my yearnings for purpose are more than satisfied when I devote myself to Christ rather than to my own agendas.  Oh and you’ll be pleased to know that no ants got onto the fruit that was served.