There are nights when going to the Brass to be with the guys feels like a drink of cool water... easy, refreshing.
And there are nights when it's a bit more like... work.
Last night? Work.
Don't worry guys, it's not you- it's me. Some nights I have no personal reserves left, and so not much to say, not much to give emotionally in terms of presence or participation or anything else.
I've been considering switching days off from Monday to Friday. I think that might actually help make Monday nights at the Brass better for me- somehow, at times, it's hard to switch from day off mode when I walk in the door. I'm still in the slow lane and the Brass requires a bit more of me than that...
But one thing I heard last night that I never want to forget... I heard it second-hand, so not so much a quote as a paraphrase.
Chris, our associate pastor, was talking to guy who's been hanging with us since last Fall. This guy is someone we've worked hard to love and connect with- someone who really fit that evergreen profile, both of an unchurched past and a hurtful church experience before finding us...
Anyway, he was talking to Chris and said something to the effect of "Our church (I love it when people move from "your church" to "our church"... makes me want to throw a freakin' party...) is an answer to prayer for a lot of parents... a lot of moms and dads who have had their kids walk away from church and are now coming back to relationship with God through evergreen."
Man, that's the kind of thing you just stick in your back pocket and save for a cold, rainy Portland day.
