Silence

We live in a fast-paced world. I live in a fast-paced world. My wife and I have four young children. The oldest is a 7 year old first grader and the youngest is a vibrant 10 mo. old with the loudest voice of any child I've ever heard! There really is little silence in our house. For that matter, there is little silence in our car, in our yard, in our church, in our neighborhood Wal-Mart, in our....well, you get the idea. There is constant motion and commotion with the Helms family. We've even noticed that our house if filled with sound while we sleep. Silence isn't common for me.
The Bible has much to say about silence. The Old Testament is replete with exhortations to silence. "Be still and know that I am God." "He leads me by the still waters; he restoreth my soul." (I've always thouht it interesting that the Lord leads his children to the still waters to restore their souls!) In the Revelation, there is a space of about an hour where silence fills the air of all creation. There are other places where silence is encouraged.
Last night we had four cousins in addition to our four children. That makes 8 unless you count Susan - that makes 9! (If you talk to Susan, she'll say that makes 12 - if you count John!) So, we had two car loads of children. They had eaten their fill of pizza. They had consumed enough Pepsi to jump start the nuclear reactor at Robinson. They were wired and pumped for the long haul! We had a very noisy ride home.
Once we put our children in bed, I took the cousins home to put them to bed. (Their parents were out of town on the ball circuit.) Once the cousins settled down, one by one they dropped off to bed. That gave me about two hours of silence before their mother and brother got home. I took that opportunity to read my Bible and pray. In two hours of silence I got sermon material, prayer time, meditation time on the Word and a host of other spiritual benefits. Truly, the Lord restores my soul by still waters and I have a renewed understanding that He is God and I am not! Silence is a blessing not often enjoyed by parents. Next time you get some silence, don't go to sleep! Sit before the Lord and know that He is God!

Strawberries and Chocolate: Simple Pleasures

Yesterday the leaders of our church met to interview a prospective staff member. Rather than just sit through an interview, I asked everyone to come with an appetite and we would eat supper (dinner for those with more refined vernacular) and meet. The meal was nothing fancy. In fact, the meal was composed of exclusively left overs from the cottage prayer meeting held the night before (please don't tell on me!). Well, the whole thing wasn't left overs. I did manage to make a special treat: strawberries dipped in white chocolate!



The strawberries were very easy to prepare. I asked my friend the strawberry grower to give me a few berries and he did. I went to the grocery store and bought the chocolate. Thankfully, the chocolate pack had the instructions for fruit dipping printed right on the label. I came back to the church and spent about 30 or 45 minutes making these delicious treats. After they cooled I placed them in the refrigerator and left them to season.



Truly, the strawberry thing took less than an hour. Once they were set to chill in the frig, I turned my attention to preparing the left overs. Can I tell you it took me nearly four hours to get the left overs presentable! Now keep in mind, I didn't just reheat and serve. I re-crafted the left overs into some culinary delights! Instead of left over fried chicken, we had Kickin'-Chicken in Cajun Gravy. Instead of chile, we had chile soup djour. (I'm not certain that one changed that much!) Instead of salad, we had tossed salad (I really did toss it out of the old bowl and put it in another one). I did cook some rice to serve as a bed for the Kickin'-Chicken Cajun gravy. And there you have it. Supper was served!



Admist the servings of the main dishes, I had placed those chocolate covered strawberries. They were exquisite, if I do say so myself. I prepared the table so that it was pleasing to the eye. I was sure that mood music played in the background and I'm sure anyone with a nose could smell the Cajun gravy in the air. Everything was a sensory delight. Guess what everyone talked about, though..... Yep! The chocolate covered strawberries! Guess what everyone snacked on through out the course of the interview. Yep! The chocolate covered strawberries! Guess what everone talked about. Yep! The chocolate covered strawberries! The chocolate covered strawberries were a smashing hit!



Earlier in the afternoon, my oldest son stopped by the kitchen to see what the old man was doing. He's seven. When I showed him the strawberries, his eyes expanded and his taste buds nearly drowned him. He wanted to know if I fried them to get the chocolate to say on them. He was absolutely amazed that the old man could make something that tasted so good and looked so pretty. Apparently, the church leadership was amazed at that, too! I told my son that I would show him how to make some chocolate covered strawberries and then we could eat his and compare. He liked that idea.



Here's what I learned. It is the simple pleasures that elicit the greatest response. The leaders and interviewees were kind and complimented everything, but that raved about the strawberries. My son loves his old man, but he was just speechless about his old man. Can I tell you how well the interview went? We spent nearly four hours sharing with one another and just plain talking from the heart. It was one of the most relaxed, informative and beneficial interviews I've ever been party to. Do you want to guess how much fun I'm going to have with my sons making chocoloate covered strawberries? Who knows what good things will come from that time together. Now maybe the strawberries didn't make the interview that great, but maybe they did!



You might better hurry out to the market and get you some strawberries. Who knows what good things you can experience from the simple pleasure of a strawberry drenched in chocolate?

Rainy Weddings NOT Stormy Marriages

This past weekend I had the opportunity to conduct a wedding ceremony in the rain. In a dozen years of marrying people, this was my first rainy wedding. To intensify the situation, the ceremony was an outdoor, garden wedding. We were scheduled to start at 4pm and somewhere around 3:15 the sky grew dark, the thunder rolled, the lightning flashed and the rain fell down - and it came down in buckets! While the bride scurried to the safety of the front porch, the groom and attendants and all the entourage that constitutes a wedding ceremony began moving flowers and chairs and all the necessities that a make a wedding so beautiful. Even the harpist could be seen dragging her instrument through puddles to the porch. It was certainly a sight to behold!

Once everyone was situated on the porch and the appointed time arrived, we began the service. I couldn't help but think as I welcomed the people, that a rainy wedding doesn't of necessity make for a stormy marriage. In fact, life has a way of throwing curve balls and you have to be able to roll with them in order to succeed. I've been in wedding ceremonies before where the slightest little ripple in the plan absolutely caused the bride to melt down. Not so with the bride of the rainy wedding. I've also been in wedding ceremonies where the groom was so jittery he couldn't hear himself think for the rattling of his knees. Not so with the rainy wedding groom.

When a couple is centered on Jesus and focused on his purpose for their lives, they have the uncanny ability to keep in perspective everything that life throws at them. In the grand scheme of things a rainy wedding service isn't going to be the end of the world. If you have each other and you're walking in obedience to God's plan for your life, so what if it rains! For that matter, if a couple is walking in obedience, so what if life throws curve ball after curve ball? Ultimately, life is kept in perspective when we focus on Christ and He enables us to overcome by not sweating the small stuff and properly handling the big stuff. I firmly believe that rainy weddings are just a part of life, but stormy marriages are NOT!

Thanks Shane and Amy for allowing me to participate in your wedding and for a great, though wet wedding experience!