Good Rebel? Part1

Recently, I was described to as a “Rebel” by one of my leaders. Maybe he noticed the troubled look his description drew from me or maybe it didn’t sound right in his to him once he had said it, because he quickly pointed out that that we need some good rebels. I didn’t see it as the right time engage him in a possibly heated discussion about rebellion and loyalty so a smiled and let it goes. But, now almost 2 months later that conversation sits unresolved on the edges of my Attention Deficit ridden mind.

There have been events and actions that I have taken part in that have been rebellious. When I was working camp one year the Salvation Army’s leader for the state had been changed and they scheduled the installation to take place in the middle of the day while camp was in session. To accommodate this installation they rescheduled every camp activity so the campers would be away from the event. This limited the activities available to the campers and created a less save environment for them. It also forced most of the staff to work extra time in order to assure that the campers were indeed safe.

At the time I was angry and I was not alone, most of the camp staff was upset about this. This same camp director had spent all our orientation repeating the mantra “camp is for the campers”. Yet we treated them as little more than an inconvenience when someone ‘who was really important’ was to be installed.

So the night before the installation I got together with many of the senior staff members and we took all the benches that had been meticulously cleaned and straightened for the installation and moved the to the field and spelled out the words “Install This!” I would be lying if I said it wasn't fun. It felt good ‘sticking it to the man’ and rebelling against something that I believe to this day was wrong.

But I have grown some and I am no longer interested in the rush of challenging authority. My goal is to effect change to make a difference. The process of truly making a difference seldom includes a ‘rush’ and it is often not fun in fact it occasionally hurts.

The man who was my camp director is a person who I have grown to respect deeply and whether was right or wrong in this instance is irrelevant. We didn’t change anything the installation went on as scheduled a many staff members did even more work to put the benches back.

Rebellion seldom impacts true change.

Home Depot

Growing up, my dad was my hero; in fact he still is. However while there was no one that I tried harder to be like, I was occasionally made acutely aware of his faults, particularly during any trip to Home Depot which inevitably ended in a discussion with the store manager. (The volume of said discussion depended on how reasonable the M.O.D. was willing to be.)

As I got older and entered my teenage years I avoided trips to Home Depot with my dad at all costs. Unlike many teenagers I was proud to spend time with both of my parents 99% of the time. My parents would even occasionally try to embarrass me but even then I thought they were funny. It is pretty hard to embarrass me, but my dad always managed to do it at Home Depot.

Dad tried several times to argue that it was not him but every employee at every Home Depot that he had ever encountered and had nothing to do with him. Based on the sheer frequency of his problems at this store I didn’t buy his argument and continued to do anything I could to avoid going to Home Depot with dad.

However… “Dad I owe you an apology.”

2 of my last 3 trips to Home Depot have been so noteworthy Joshua Jones has written about them in his Blog: http://settingamaddeningpace.blogspot.com/search?q=home+depot . For this third visit of the “Home Depot Trilogy” I am editorializing.

Josh and I went to home depot to pick up a high powered fan, a propane tank, some light bulbs and possibly a charcoal grill. (the only reason we still go to home depot is convenience. It is minutes from the corps and one of the few places that would carry all of the items I just listed.
When we arrived we went straight to the grills as they are right by the entrance. There was one Charcoal grill among 30 or so gas grills of every shape and size. The only charcoal grill on display however, had no price tag. So we spent several minutes trying to find someone to assist us. When no one was available I went to the courtesy desk and had someone paged.

Our assistance came in a young man creatively using his orange apron to hold a large bag of Doritos which were both in his mouth and on his fingers when he asked us what we wanted. When I pointed to the grill he told me they don’t carry it. When I asked the obvious question of why they have it on display if it isn’t for sale he simply ignored it as he told me I should just buy one of the other grills, which I explained I didn’t want. I was only interested in a Charcoal grill. (The food tastes better)

Taking the high road we moved on to the other items on our list, which we found without any major incident. In fact while retrieving the other items we discovered a display of portable sturdy and affordable charcoal grills in a random part of the store. These grills were exactly what I had been looking for and Josh was so impressed he is considering purchasing one personally for his new apartment.

We placed the grill into our cart and proceeded to find our last item. While we worked our way through the store we passed the ‘assistance’ from earlier (still eating he Doritos conveniently blending into his orange apron.) when he noticed our cart and the grill on top he began to yell at me saying “I thought you only wanted the other grill huh, huh?

This trip ended with the manager on duty. That’s three trips and three problems. Dad, I am sorry all this time it really was them. Maybe they actually train their staff not to be helpful.

All you had to do was ask!!!

A common problem at most Salvation Army churches is unwanted donations. You see the Salvation Army operates the largest network of ‘faith based’ substance abuse programs in the country. These programs fund themselves through and help men and women with their recovery through the even larger network of Salvation Army Thrift Stores across the country. However, not every Salvation Army has a thrift store. In fact, most of the churches do not. Further more, Most Salvation Army churches operate out of buildings that are already way to small and have little or no storage.

Our building is exceptionally small and we frequently receive donations of clothing in the middle of the night. These donations are often thrown over our fence the bags are often broken and people often steal the bags before we arrive to place them in a closet until the truck comes. We have a good relationship with the local Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center (The men of the program worship with us weakly and the men of the corps lead a weekly bible study at the center) so the truck comes frequently.

However…

The other day one of our neighbors came in to request food assistance after he was helped he took his back of food and began to leave the building. As he existed he noticed a large garbage bag where donations are usually dropped. He looked backed through the glass entrance to see if anyone was looking than he grabbed both bags and ran off. As I stood there our community outreach assistant (a wonderful woman who bridges the gap between social ministry and spiritual ministry) chuckled and said “he’s gonna be upset in a minute” I looked at he waiting for her to explain. The lawn people just finished up and that bag was full of grass clippings!!! We could have helped him with cloths if he had asked.

Happy National Sneak a Zucchini onto your neighbor’s porch day!!!

My wife is legendary for both her attention to detail and her thoughtfulness. She is forever coming up with little ways to include and involve people at our corps (church). One of the things she has begun recently is adding obscure holidays to our church calendar to help encourage people to read it. Well anyone from the Stapleton Salvation Army who reads their calendar will know that August 8, 2007 is National Sneak a Zucchini onto your neighbor’s porch night.

What they will not know is that we have every intention of actually celebrating this holiday. This one was to good to pass up. So I decided that My 3 year old son and I were going to have some fun. Only due to recent Shoulder surgery I can’t drive. So Logan and I invited old friend and Stapleton Corps (church) Director of Outreach to join us. The idea was to give mommy a night off but when mommy and Auntie DeAnna found out what we were doing they thought our night would be more fun than a night off so the are joining us. Oh and Shannon josh’s sister is also in town so she is coming two.

During my late teens when I first fell in Love with Jesus I would do stuff like this all the time. The only real point is to have some fun and remind other members of the church that they are a part of the family. Unfortunately from with responsibility comes the tendency to become boring. Thank you God that you do not call us to be boring that is something we add on our own.

There should be a follow up to this one because we plan to take pictures and video and post them on our church site.

http://www.mychurch.org/stapleton