A Note From Tom: July 15th, 2011

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having a blessed, joy-filled day! That’s what Freddy Smith always wishes us at the end of his shift of bluegrass music from six to nine in the morning on 89.9 WDVX…He plays about three Gospel songs (“…to kindly tune up your heartstrings”) but right before, he always signs off with, “Have a blessed day!”

I’d bet it’s safe to say that pretty much everyday is more blessed (or is it “blessed-ier”?) than we realize! And our days are full of moments that matter more than we ever knew.

Once a mom packed a lunch for her little boy ‘cause he was going on an outing with some friends and would be gone for the day in the country. “As fast as he’s growing, he’ll be starving by eleven!” she thought. She probably didn’t think about it again. But a dude named Andrew somehow got the kid to give up his lunch to Jesus (maybe he promised him that Jesus would autograph his brown paper lunch bag!) and Jesus blessed the few fish and pitas, and miraculously, exponentially, multiplied them, and more than 5000 folks were invited to an unexpected picnic!

Like moms across the globe, a mom packed her boy some sandwiches. Happened to be fish sandwiches. It was thoughtful.  And she probably never thought about it again. We’ve been reading about that lunch for twenty centuries!

You never know how many unforgettably meaningful “meaningless moments” are packed into to your ordinary day!

Here’s one…one morning, Lee, Pottsie, Bill Reazer and I were sitting down at Panera bread, talking about the Book of Romans and other intense stuff. Next to us, this older dude in an open-buttoned shirt (Tom Jones-style) and a big gold chain was chowing down and reading, totally ignoring us. Then, seemingly done, he got up…and left. Not only that but, he left…a big, untouched hunk of that awesome French bread they sell done there.

“Seems a shame to leave that,” Bill said. He looked at me (always hungry). “If I snag it off his plate, will you eat it?”

WITHOUT HESITATION, I answered, “You know it!”

Bill looked this way…then that way…and sloooooowwwwwly leeeaaaned over and just as he reached out to grab that bread with my name all over it….

“Wow! You get up for a second and folks are stealing your food!”

It was him!

“Opps!” said Bill.

“Opps!” said I.

“Ha!” said Pottsie

“Uh…we…uh…thought that you were…um…maybe…uh…gone…”

“Well, my son’s a manager here! I’m calling him over!”

I immediately realized that I didn’t know anything about how that whole posting bail thing worked. Just then, his son came over.

“These boys are so hungry, they’re having to steal food. Could you bring them a whole loaf of that French bread?”

“Sure, dad. No problem.”

As the son threw it down before our unbelieving eyes, the dad looked at us and said, as he was leaving, “All you have to do is ask.”

Y’know I was thinking about that story this week because Bill, now Young Life area director for Cape Girardeau, Missouri and one of the amazing missionaries we support, is giving the “talks” for the first time at a Young Life camp in Minnesota. He is boldly sharing the message of Jesus with hundreds of high schoolers from all over the nation, who have never heard it before. And when he gets to the part about all that Jesus did to make us His own…and what anyone who wants it, has to do to get the Gift…he tells the Panera story.

And he says, “All you have to do is ask.”

Your days are full of moments that mean more than you know.