Great Question

Casa Bonita

Jacqueline's Mariachi birthday serenade

When we asked Jacqueline what she wanted to do to celebrate her 14th birthday there was not even a second's hesitation: I want to take my friends to Casa Bonita!  For those who've never had the C.B. experience, the only way I can describe it is Mexican food Disneyland style (including the corny entertainment).  It's a humongous place (they can seat 900 people at one time) built to resemble a Mexican village - with a working waterfall, shops, video arcades etc.  Basically a perfect place for kids to get lost for hours at a time.  Jacqueline invited three of her friends to come, and the four of them were better entertainment than anything up on stage.  It's a Mexican restaurant, so all four of them ordered chicken fried steak and root beer (??).  They barely ate two bites before they dashed off to the restroom for the first of four or five visits to that magical place.  Can you imagine if they were boys?  "Hey, let's go to the bathroom together!"  Somebody would end up getting punched in the face.  They reappeared briefly, ate a few more bites, then they were off for the next hour and a half having the time of their lives.  The evening cost me a packet, but the memories made were worth every penny.

That caught me off guard

 I went skiing with my friend Scott on Monday, along with two other men who were on ski patrol duty with him that day.  One of them is a fairly new Christian who came to faith a few years ago when his wife suffered a massive stroke after undergoing heart surgery.  God had strategically placed strong Christians around them who responded with compassion, love and support and literally wooed them into the faith.  What a great story!  How I wish we Christians could always lean so appropriately into others' pain, rather than leaning away out of our own fears and insecurities.  Anyway, as we're driving towards Copper Mountain this guy (who's name also happens to be Scott) asks if we would be willing to engage in a short spiritual exercise. We'd just been discussing the state of the economy and how to use investment funds without incurring early withdrawal penalties, so his question caught me a little off guard.  Plus it's not the kind of question you expect to hear in a group of guys, so my curiosity was definitely piqued.  We all agreed, so he asked this question: "Why do you delight in the Lord?"  Hmmm.  There's food for thought. The other guy in the back seat gave a quick answer that showed he hadn't understood the question - but Scott graciously came to his rescue by translating his answer in such a way that he sounded like a genius.  What a classy guy.  We went around the car with our answers, and here's what I said:  the longer I know the Lord, the more aware I am of my own sinfulness, and the more dumbfounded I am by His grace towards me every day.  Why He uses me at all I'll never know, but His warmth and acceptance towards me causes me to feel the same compassion and grace towards other sinners like myself.  It was a deeply spiritual moment shared by four men on their way to go skiing.  What a great question.