Privileged?

A great, great friend of mine, Rich Peterson, is a great pastor and is the father of my boss/pastor Jeff Peterson and he is currently the pastor to seniors at RMCC. Rich just celebrated a couple of years ago being in the ministry for over 50 years and in those 50 years he still has an amazing outlook in life and ministry. Every time he speaks of something he has to do or something he got to do he says he had the privilege in doing it. I didn't get it at first, I didn't realize it at first. As a matter of fact it wasn't until working with him for over a year and a half on staff with him before it clicked. We were discussing in staff four questions which I will be blogging about shortly. And after we would answer the four questions our pastor would exhort us and bring up some highlights of our past year that he had thought of.

It was as Rich was speaking that he said as a pastor to seniors he has to do so many funerals. He said that he had the privilege of doing eight funerals this year. I thought how could anyone think that a funeral is a privilege. Then I began to look back over the past 18 months at the moments that Rich would chime in, few and rare, but when he did everyone would listen. Rich has an enormous amount of wisdom with his 50 years of ministry and he spent many years as the Superintendent for the A/G in Illinois. I realized that almost every time Rich would speak of an event in his life like; speaking at a funeral, visiting someone on their death bed, telling a family member that their loved one has a terminal disease, at the bedside of an elderly man or woman as they draw their last breath he would share about the privilege he had.

This has caused me to think, think about how little value I put on the general things I do. How do I begin to look at each person, each event, each interruption in life as a privilege? I don't want to think about this in 50 years, I want to be that person now in this era of my life. I want to begin a new chapter in my life, I want to turn the page that is completely blank, dip my pen in the ink and begin developing a life of looking at every thing in life as a privilege. Let the penmanship of my life begin to write about the privileges I have.

Let me ask you something. What has happened lately that was not a privilege that you could renegotiate your thoughts and change your perspective and realize that you were privileged by the interruption in life?

How do I operate in 'privileged mode'?

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The American Culture Shift: Thanksgiving

It is amazing to see the cultural shift in America from Thanksgiving Thursday to Greedy Black Friday. Up until midnight we are still celebrating what we are thankful for, midnight plus one minute all has changed! Black Friday references to over 20 different historical events, but is most popular for it being the most popular day of shopping and representing the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. This Christmas shopping season is huge among retailers, this is the day that they will open up as early as 4a (Kohls and Mervyn's) and have loss leaders that many times is an item that is sold at below it's value so that the store loses money in order to get the greedy shopper in their doors to buy more. But "Shaun you are being a bigot, we are saving money and therefore stewarding what God has given us." So right you are, but at least be honest with yourself, our mindset has changed.

Americans narcissistic attitude of greedy indulgence till your stomach is so full is the annual American Culture Shift. We over indulge with food on Thanksgiving Day then overindulge in spending the following day. Sure, Black Friday represents that the stores are no longer in the red and can show a clear upturn in their income... for what? At the risk of the consumers going into the red and piling on the credit card debt. Please let us not overlook the true meaning of Thanksgiving, what a day to celebrate. We spend 364 days a year overindulging then take a brief moment out of our schedule on Thanksgiving to be thankful for those 364 days. Clean water, jeans (multiple pairs), house, clothes, food, fast food, cars, fast cars, iPod, iPhone, cable TV, DVR, Big Screen, Stainless Steel appliances, Macs/PCs, Blackberries, pool tables, bikes, quads, laptops, air conditioning, gaming systems, and of course bling, we are in the land of plenty. Maybe you can sit back for a moment and be thankful. What about the bigger things in life, family, breath, health, free will, safety, compassion, empathy/sympathy, emotions, humor, laughter; you know the things that really count that are not able to be purchased but are part of every human, part of every eikon.

This year I want to be simply... THANKFUL!

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