Why I Don't like Disneyland (No offense Sarah or Char)

OK, there are 60,000 people in one place. The bathrooms are always crowded. People are constantly looking at you like you are a waste of space because you are in theirs. Kids are throwing up cotton candy and pickles. People are not wearing enough clothes. I have to sit in the same seat as the girls who are pretty much wearing denim underwear. Yuck! The lines aren't just long, they are ridiculous. Ridiculous because in the time it would take me to wait to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, I could be in the Caribbean. And with the price of admission, it just might be cheaper. There are grown men in tights walking around like they own the place, and I am not just talking about the cast members. I have blisters on the back of my ankles. Not from my tennis shoes (I wore Rainbows) but from the 389 strollers that rammed me from behind. There are more wheelchairs in Disneyland than anywhere on the planet. Fakers, who get rewarded by cutting in front of me, shortening their wait time by 3 hours per ride. Who says cheating doesn't pay! I don't mean to be so negative. Someone I really respect LOVES Disneyland and I get it. It is a place where your 8 year-old dreams can come true. But my 26 year-old dreams were squashed by the rather large lady with a cane who swooped in on my bench! MY BENCH! I guess its people like me that make Disneyland what it is. Sarah, you are my hero! I love you for seeing the good in all people and even all places! I will work on it. Although I will probably never go to Disneyland again, I now how have incredible memories there with Charlotte, Sarah, Beth, Katie and Annie! You girls made all the difference in the world!!!! Oh yeah! And It's a Small World sucks!

A Lesson on Your Senses

It's Wednesday night. NIGHT HIKE!!!! My kids have been waiting for this moment all week. We start by walking silently, getting our eyes adjusted to the night sky. They are besides themselves with anxiety and excitement. And as I hear giggles coming form the very back of the trail group, I realize my counselors are pretty antsy too. My first activity is one intended to challenge them to investigate two of their senses: smell and taste. The truth is they are connected and tasting flavor is near impossible without your sense of smell. So the directions are to hold your nose with one hand and put your other hand out in front of you so that I can give you a jelly bean. Chew the jelly bean for 20 seconds and try to figure out what flavor it is. Once I had gotten them to this point, I asked them to let go of their nose and tell me what flavor they had. "Grape!" "Yuck!" "Chocolate!" "Tutti-frutti" And then my counselor.

"I can't taste it. How am I supposed to taste it?"

I didn't exactly know how to respond and knowing me, you can imagine my facial expression at this point. Good thing it was dark. "Well," I really tried not to be patronizing, "With your tongue I guess."

Silence.

Her response sent us all into hysterics. "So its not supposed to be up my nose?"

She must have missed a word here or there. She started to try to snot rocket it out of her nostril as the rest of us keeled over laughing! What planet are these people from?! Moral of the story: Don't be the kind of idiot who does whatever anyone tells you to do. Especially if you think they are telling you to lodge anything up your nose. I guess except for bay leaves cause I tell my kids to do that every week... you get my point.

Long View

THIS IS NOT MINE!!!! I found this in high school and have no idea where it is from but I love it.

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise
that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom
always lies beyond us.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.
This is what we are about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
We can not do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for
God's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.