Tonight I Accidentally “Stole” My Supper

Pretty much every Monday night Pam and I eat supper with my Mom. Tonight we decided to pick up Panda Express for the meal, so I went on their website to place our order. As I was finishing up the arborist, who we’ve hired to remove 6 very large white pines and 1 dead maple tree from our yard, rang the doorbell to let me know he was finished for the day. I went up and talked with him for a few minutes and then left to pick up our food from Panda Express.

When I got to Panda Express I didn’t see our meal on the takeout shelf and asked one of the workers when the order for Robert T would be finished. They told meit would be ready in just a few minutes and asked me to take a seat while they finished. A couple of minutes later, as promised, a worker walked over with my order and I hopped in our vehicle to pick up Pam and Noah and head to Mom’s.

It was at Mom’s place that I discovered that this was not my order. Instead, it was a similar but not quite the same order as mine. It was a slightly larger order than ours without as much variety. The name on the receipt said “Rob C”. Well that explains it. The worker heard my “Robert T” as “Rob C” and gave me “Rob C”‘s order. They sound close enough for that to happen. I called Panda Express to tell them that I had received the wrong order but that it was very similar. While they were looking into it we were disconnected. Pam, Noah, Mom, and I decided we were good with this food and went ahead and ate it. Like I said the order was very similar and we all got something we wanted.

After spending more time at Mom’s we packed up and headed home. I briefly went to check something on my computer and that is when I noticed that the “Check out” page for the Panda Express website was still up. It seems that when I went answer the doorbell and talk to our arborist I never actually clicked the “submit” button. So the order was never placed. This wouldn’t have been a problem and I would have discovered it when I got there and there was no order for me EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT THERE WAS A “ROB C” ORDER THERE READY TO BE PICKED UP.

Don’t worry I went back to Panda Express, explained the situation, and paid for our meal so as to not be living on the lamb. They all thought it was hilarious and even gave me a coupon. I’m gladly that it worked out this was because I don’t think Rob C would have liked my order as much. There would have been too much variety in it for what I believe are his tastes.

… Ask a Person’s Family

I once heard Tony Campolo say that if you really want to know if you are Christian, just ask your waitress. I really like his point, because the gospel should shape how we treat all those around us, and that begins with those closest to us. This is all the more true during the pandemic when so many people in the hospitality industry are seeing the worst side of people. This week I read a quote from D. L. Moody that I would place alongside Campolo’s statement. In fact, I suspect that Moddy influenced Campolo’s thoughts on the matter.

Moody wrote:

“If I wanted to find out whether a man was a Christian, I wouldn’t go to his minister. I would go and ask his wife. We need more Christian life at home. If a man doesn’t treat his wife right, I don’t want to hear him talk about Christianity.”

I like this quote because I believe that home and friendships are where so many of the simple aspects of faith are played out.

Too many people want to do “great things for God”, not realizing that 1) God doesn’t need us to accomplish anything for Him, and 2) being used by God to accomplish something big doesn’t indicate closeness with God or growth in the character of Jesus in our lives. After all, God used Nebuchadnezzar to accomplish His will while Nebuchadnezzar was the type of person to set up huge golden idols and punish God’s faithful people. So some live trying to do something grand for God and leave out the mundane parts of their lives from being transformed by the Holy Spirit. This is a shame because the mundane parts of our lives are the most important for actually developing the character of Christ in us.

Unfortunately, such a focus often leads to ministries and ministers who ignore, or worse , mistreat their family, friends, and employees while feeling justified because they are doing something big for God. It sounds like we may have another ministry serving as an example of this in Preemptive Love. While trying to “stop the spread of violence” it appears that their leadership may have been “bully(ing), gaslight(ing), and abuse(Ing) the peacemakers” on their own team. Jesus said that “the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart” (Matthew 15:18) and the people closest to us are therefore going to know our hearts better than others because they have the chance to experience what is in our hearts more often than others.

We have been called to be like Jesus, but so often we would rather just do something for Him because that takes less change of our selfish ways.

Klunking & The Gospel

As a result of getting into mountain biking more, I have begun to watch many MTB videos on Youtube, and today I ran across this gem.

It is from 1979 and it is about a Klunking race. Klunking was an early name for downhill mountain biking because those early bikes were just Schwinn newspaper boy bikes which the riders had modified with things like thicker tires and more gears. These klunkers were riding fast down terrains that those bikes were NEVER meant to go down and they had a blast. Around the middle of the video up pops a guy named Gary Fischer who eventually became one of the most influential bike designers in mountain biking. In fact, the bike I currently ride is a Gary Fischer designed bike. Yeah my 2013 Trek Mamba Gary Fischer Edition is a wonderful machine.

Those early bikes were dirt cheap and just put together from whatever parts the riders could find that would work on the difficult terrain. Mountain bikes today ARE NOT CHEAP. In fact, they are super expensive to the point that it is prohibitive to the point that it keeps some from getting into the sport.

Or at least it is prohibitive when people decide that you HAVE TO HAVE a bike with certain features. Don’t get me wrong many of these expensive features are really helpful and make mountain biking more fun and safer. I am a really big fan of suspension and cushy tires that absorb many of the bumps that are involved in mountain biking. But do you have to have suspension and cushy tires?

Nope!

How do I know this? Well I know it because I have seen people riding the same trails, that I was repeatedly told to not even consider trying without a strong mountain bike with lots of suspension, on bikes that were definitely designed for nothing more than a lazy Sunday afternoon ride. Some people even get pretty snobby about telling people that you can’t actually be a real mountain biker unless you have certain specific equipment. There can be a lot of snobbery in biking.

Yes, the more expensive mountain bikes make the trails significantly more manageable, but you can have just as much fun riding on bikes that are pretty similar to those old klunkers. The bike industry has realized this and over the past few years, they have begun selling gravel bikes which are basically nothing more than expensive versions of early mountain bikes with no too little suspension.

I love the new bikes but the video of the klunkers reminds me that all it really takes to mountain bike is a desire to ride two wheels down terrifying stretches of trail. Well, that desire and good health insurance.

I think we often do the same type of thing with the Gospel. We start out simple. We repent (admitting who we are and are state of neediness), which in a world obsessed with image is a revolutionary act because it demands that we actually admit who we are in all our messiness rather than present curated “authenticity” concerning ourselves. As we repent we ask Jesus to forgive us and give us His grace. That grace is the Gospel, the “good news”. That is what it is all about.

Other things can be helpful in living in the Gospel. Yet they are never the main thing. Living in the Gospel is what life is supposed to be all about.