Conversations with Matthew

 My name is Matthew. M-A-T-T-H-E-W. Do you know how to spell M-A-T-T-H-E-W? I do. M-A-T-T-H-E-W.

~ Teaching Matthew how to pray ~

Matt: Do I say, "Dear God,"?

Me: Sure

Matt: Then do I say, "Thank you for our food."?

Me: Yes

Matt: And.. "Bless it."?

Me: Right

Matt: Then "Amen."?

Me: You got it!

Matt: Okay.... Dear, God. Thank you for our food. And bless it. Then amen.

~ On this particular day, I'm wearing rust colored tights ~

Matt: What happened to your legs, Miss Reagan! What happened to your legs!

Me: (Confused at first) Ummm... OH! Nothing, these are tights! They're just colored that way. It's not my skin.

Matt: Tights... tights... tights... You mean like Teen Titans!?!?

~ BFF's ~

Who is your best friend?

Matt: Emma

Who is your best friend at school?

Matt: Sydney

Who is your best guy friend at school?

Matt: Jared

He doesn't go to your school!

Matt: No, but he takes me sometimes.

Door to Door

I've never liked door to door evangelism. To me it always seemed that it was more like selling a vacuum cleaner than sharing the love of Jesus. And I don't think I'm completely wrong, but now I think I'm mostly wrong.

I took an incredible class this semester about reaching the Unchurched in America and the thing we focused on the most was being missional. This just means that everything we do revolves around bringing glory to God by sharing Jesus with those around me. For instance, my workplace isn't a place to make money while I learn to do ministry, it is my ministry.

So the last day of this class I found out that we were going to be helping out a new church plant in North Raleigh. I thought that maybe we would work at the school where they're meeting. Nope. We went door to door to tell people about the church and to share the gospel with them if we got a chance.

I've been thinking about this hour spent going door to door for the last two weeks. My thinking came to a tipping point yesterday while I was watching a show featuring Gordon Ramsey. He's a famous chef that yells and cusses at bad restaurant owners but he fixes problems. I love it.

This place he was fixing was a bar in England that had no real direction and a terrible reputation. Chef Ramsey showed up and fixed everything. Still, no one came. So he sent out the staff to go door to door to bring people in.

Boom. Sometimes we've got to go door to door. Jesus' message gets hijacked from time to time and people hear the wrong message. They hear that Jesus wants them to do more so He'll love them. They hear that if they love Him just right and prayer the right prayers they'll prosper. They hear that if they walk an isle and say a prayer they'll go to heaven and sing with fat angels playing harp. How will they know if they have not heard that Jesus actually sets us free from all of that work and hoping in nothing?

I still think being missional is the best way to evangelize but I realize more and more that I don't know everything. I've got a lot to learn.

But I'm still right about church league softball. It's got to go.

Dallas White Rock Marathon

My bubba just finished the Dallas White Rock Marathon! I'm so proud of him. We wish we could have been there. Here he is with my beautiful sister Lindsay. I miss them so much.

Or... Batman!

I was reading "The Jesus Storybook Bible" to Matthew, and we were on the story of the prodigal son. At the end it says, "So they could know, however far they ran, however well they hid, however lost they were - it wouldn't matter. Because God's children could never run too far, or be too lost, for God to find them."

Matthew responds, "Or Batman! Batman could find them!"