Author: Allan (Page 266 of 492)
The very first time I ever flew in an airplane was with Carrie-Anne. We took off from the airport in Amarillo for Denver where we would connect to a flight to Las Vegas where we were married at 11:30 at night in the basement of the Clark County courthouse by sheriff’s deputy Sherrill Meyer. That was twenty five years ago.
Today, C-A and I have flown to Denver from Amarillo where we’re having breakfast at McDonald’s and waiting on our flight to Hawaii to celebrate the silver anniversary of that wild weekend in Vegas. Funny how things have come full circle over this quarter century together. The last time we were in this airport, we bought over-priced matching Denver Broncos sweatshirts: white with the old vintage Broncos logo helmet on the front. Why? We have no idea. We were young and in love and wanted matching shirts for some reason. Plus some souvenir, I guess, from our two hour stay in Denver.
Today, we’ve purchased matching egg sandwiches. We’re old and in love. Still in love. And looking very forward to spending the next ten days together in a wonderful place we’ve never been.
Thanks to Steve and Becky and Scott and Brenda for agreeing to check up on our daughters while we’re away. Thanks to Cortnie and Aleisha and Hannah for being such dependable friends and making sure our daughters don’t just sleep ’til noon and watch “Castle” re-runs all day long while we’re gone. And thanks to God above that B.J. is in Killeen for the next three weeks!
Peace,
Allan
Summer seems to be a time of year when we’re more likely to interact with new people in our church building: more visitors, more vacationers, more of our community, more people who’ve just moved to our city, more folks looking for a church home.
We can be tempted to not personally welcome visitors in our church building for fear that visitor may actually turn out to be a 15-year member. We’re embarrassed when we ask an unfamiliar face if they’re visiting and they inform us they’ve been at this church longer than we have. It’s awkward. So we’re paralyzed and we don’t do anything. And an hour later we’ve got twenty visitors at Cracker Barrel saying, “That’s not a very friendly church.”
Long time members don’t help when we become offended if another member doesn’t know our name. The way to respond to another member who mistakes you for a visitor is not, “I’ve been coming here for 27 years! How long have you been here?”
If we’re going to be a welcoming church in the name and manner of Jesus, we’ve got to first get over ourselves. This is a big church; and that’s OK.
You can’t be embarrassed about not knowing someone’s name. How could you possibly know everybody? It’s unrealistic. And you can’t be offended if somebody doesn’t know your name. How could everybody know you? Why should everybody know you? It’s sinful, really. This is a not a 200-member church. It’s a big church; and that’s OK.
In fact, here at Central, we’re trying to make that something we say when we find ourselves in that awkward position of mistaking a member for a visitor. Both people in the awkward situation need to look at each other with love in their eyes and patience in their hearts and say, “It’s a big church; and that’s OK.”
We did it together this past Sunday and we’re going to do it again this coming Sunday. We want to be a friendly and welcoming church this summer. And it’s going to take all of us to pull it off.
Peace,
Allan
Where were you the night Joey Gallo made his dramatic major league debut with the Texas Rangers? It might not matter. Even if you were glued to the TV screen last night as the 21-year-old went 3-4 with a majestic homer and four RBIs, you might not remember it ten years from now. I couldn’t tell you where I was or what I was doing when Ruben Sierra, Pudge Rodriguez, or Juan Gonzales made their debuts with the Rangers.
Gallo was on his way to AAA Round Rock on Monday when the Rangers called and asked him to keep his apartment in Frisco. Due to Adrian Beltre’s jammed thumb suffered in Sunday’s walk-off win, the team needed to expedite Gallo’s journey to the majors and called him up to start at third base Tuesday. And Gallo delivered.
A sharply hit two-run single in his first ever major league at-bat. A towering two-run homer into the second deck in his second at-bat. Even more important, a hard-earned walk in the 8th inning after a quick strikeout in the 6th. Gallo’s on-demand curtain call at the Ballpark came well before he finished one triple shy of hitting for the cycle. He makes the Rangers must-see-TV right now. He’s part of a very young, very talented, very confident group of kids the Rangers are riding to win eleven of their past thirteen games. And they’re suddenly fun to watch.
The 6’5″ slugger has a lot of strike zone to cover at the plate. I’m not sure a guy that big can work as much ground as is needed at the hot corner at third. I don’t know how long it’ll take major league pitchers to figure him out. I do know he’s not going to go 3-4 with 4 RBIs every night. Before this is over, he’s going to struggle. Two weeks from now, we might all agree that Jon Daniels’ plan to ship Gallo back to Round Rock when Beltre is healthy is the right one.
But we’ve all seen enough to know he’s the real deal. He’s going to be a home-grown, drafted-and-developed superstar for this club in the tradition of Sierra and Pudge and Juando for many years. More than likely, he’ll play the bulk of this year with the Express, get called up to Arlington again in September, and then join the big club for good at the beginning of 2016. Probably. And if the powerful lefty lives up to expectations, if he plays a long and successful career with the Rangers and makes a bunch of All-Star games and delivers a couple of pennants, the legend of last night will be told and re-told so many times you’ll feel like you saw it live. And you might even tell people you did.
Peace,
Allan
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