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Tonight marked the third straight Christmas season that we have taken the student ministry from Journey Church to what has become a very special place for myself, our adult volunteers, and our students. The place is Brookside Extended Care in Mason, Ohio. Brookside is an AMAZING long term care and learning center for the severely mentally and/or physically handicapped. Many of the residents at Brookside are teenagers or young children… all of them are wheelchair bound, and only a couple can audibly communicate.

For the third year in a row the group of teenagers that we brought to Brookside absolutely blew me away. Here are a bunch of cookie cutter suburban teenagers walking into a room full of kids, teens, and adults in wheelchairs, and unable to physically function at a high level… I can’t imagine the mindset of our teens walking into that moment. Each time we’ve gone, our students have stepped out of their comfort zone, and into the lives that they can hardly imagine. They color with (for) the residents, they make crafts to hang in their rooms and on their wheelchairs, they talk to them, they joke about cute boys and pretty girls, they talk about sports and TV shows, most of the time with the only response being a moan, or a stare from a drooped head. It’s sobering to witness and participate in.

Tonight when we left, on the drive back to the high school, I asked my car full of junior high boys what they thought of the experience, and if it reminded them of anything from Scripture. Here are some responses:

• It was really cool for us to visit them since they don’t get many visitors.
• It’s hard to believe that’s how/where they live their lives everyday.
• It’s tough to think about the fact that they are just teenagers like us.
• On Scripture: It reminded each of them about the stories they had heard about the lepers. Specifically how in our society, we often outcast the handicapped, and avoid them when we encounter them in public.

The most amazing thing about our trips to Brookside is how each time we intend on “blessing” those residents, and each time we leave feeling so much more “blessed” by them. (I put those words in quotes because I’m not even sure what that means… it’s a churchy way of saying that we feel fuzzy inside I think.) Our teams from Journey Church that go to Guatemala each year end up telling a similar story. We go to show love to those people, and end up feeling as much or even more love in return.

What’s up with that? I think the answer lies somewhere in Jesus’ words at the end of Matthew 25. When we serve the “least of these”… we are serving Jesus Himself. Jesus is pleased when we serve the downtrodden, the forgotten, the handicapped, the unloved, the ostracized, etc… When we do this, we make Jesus happy, and we make our own hearts happy… it “blesses” us. It makes me wonder whey we don’t do it more often…

I had this thought a couple of weeks ago. I meant to blog it then. I went to Southern California and forgot about it (SoCal has a way of doing that to you). I saw something today that reminded me about this thought.

What does it mean to be a leader? I’m not even sure that’s the right question… maybe it’s: “What does it mean to be a servant?” or “What does it mean to live?” I dunno… in the context of my faith community, the question would be: “What does it mean to live big?” We have this thing… we talk about living, giving, loving, serving BIG. We believe a big life is the reason Jesus left heaven, came to earth, and did what he did.

Anyway… let’s just roll with the idea of leading. My theory is that leadership means discovering whatever it is that you do best in life (the things that God has most wired and gifted you to do), and figuring out a way to leverage that for the forward motion of others. Leadership at its core is about moving others (individually or organizationally) forward right?

Well, I think living is just as simple. If you aren’t leveraging what you do best in life to move someone else forward to a better place, then you simply aren’t living. You’re dying…selfishly.

This is what I saw today that reminded me of this. It’s a simple concept, just a guy who recognizes that God has given him a unique set of skills and passions, and has decided to use those things to help others. He is living, leading, serving, whatever he’s doing… I like it, and I want to do similar things.

Click here to read all about Help Portrait. Watch the two videos below to understand it fully.

Well, today is a very special day for our country… for our world even. Special because today we will swear in for the first time a President that is not a caucasian male… yes. Special because there are over 2 million people gathered in D.C. to witness this history… yes. Special for many reasons.

In my opinion though, today is special because it’s just like all of the other inauguration days in our country’s history. What a wonderful country we live in that we have such peaceful and graceful transitions of leadership. For at least this one day, many many people put aside their political stance and celebrate how wonderful and enduring our country is.

I’d like to take a moment to say hello to one man, and goodbye to another.

Hello President Obama. I don’t know much about you yet. I know that you are a very gifted speaker, and you appear to have a stoic presence in front of the camera. I know you are very appealing to my generation, and that you have created an intense interest in American politics for many who were disinterested before. I look forward to getting to know you. I will be praying for you and the tough decisions you will need to make. I hope in four or eight years we have great things to say and write about you. I hope the Change you have advertised will be a beautiful thing that will further embed our nation with the values, morals, and upstanding character that has made it such a great nation all along.

Goodbye President Bush. Eight years ago I was 16 years old and was not too concerned about the political process. Nine months into your presidency, everything about my world, our world, our country changed. From this day forward when I think back on your Presidency, I will forever remember the image of you standing on the rubble of the World Trade Center… I will remember you throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium…. I will remember you standing tall and making tough decisions that you knew would not be popular with many people. I applaud your determination to lead for eight difficult years. You had the weight of the world on your shoulders, and although you were not always graceful in speech (sorry, had to), you were always graceful in character and stature. I wish you well as you leave The White House. I am happy for you that your time in office is over… you deserve retirement… you deserve to relax on your ranch in Crawford… you deserve to sit back and watch someone else take the heat for once. Thank you for your service. Enjoy the grandkids.

I’m writing this on my iPhone as I lie (lay?) in bed after a wonderful Christmas day.

The day started with my wonderful wife waking me up in eagerness to give me the gift she bought for me. She was so excited because on the past she has failed to surprise me, either due to lack of a lying gift, or poor gift hiding skills. Nonetheless, this year I was clueless, and after opening I was wonderfully delighted. She got me a remote control… A Logitech Harmony 550 Advanced Remote Control. To some yes, just a remote control. To me though, it’s so much more. It’s my entire theatre system controlled with one slick device. It’s my other 4 remotes tucked away in a drawer forever. It’s a pure awesome man toy, and I love it! Oh yea, and Sadie (dog toys) and Jen (book, shoes) opened their presents to, but mine was so much cooler.

From there we headed to my mom & dad’s house for the giant extended family Christmas luncheon. At 2:00 there were 35 people in the house. It was crazy… and awesome! I love my family, even the crazy ones. It’s great to see everyone in the same house enjoying a great meal, and wonderful memories. It’s a crazy couple of hours that I look forward to each year. I especially enjoyed the part where I forced several family members to watch a slideshow of photos on dad’s HDTV from our Journey to Guatemala this summer. I love retelling those stories and spreading the message of compassion! I also noticed that little cousins are growing like weeds, and turning into “cool” teenagers with cell phones & iPods… I wonder if they still think I’m cool?

Eventually the house cleared out, and there were only a couple of us left. Dad and I wanted a “snack”, so mom reheated the Christmas Eve breakfast, made fresh biscuits & cinnamon rolls, all in about 10 minutes… at 7:00 at night. My mom is pretty much amazing!!

After eating & cleaning up, Jen & I headed home. We stopped at Wal-Greens to grab something, and saw quite an eclectic group of people. Interesting folks shopping at Wal-Greens at 8 pm on Christmas Day!

That brought me home where I used my new remote to turn on the: TV, Cable, & Receiver (all with one button!!), in order to watch Lebron & the Cavs squeak out a win against the Wizards.

Now I lie (or lay?… I really have no idea) in bed feeling thankful, lucky, and wishing I could do it all again!

What did your Christmas look like? (Also, is it lie or lay?)