March 5 – “Last Call”

I went to a funeral yesterday morning for a Jamaica Beach volunteer fire fighter.  He was killed in an accident on his motorcycle.  It was quite an impressive ceremony.  There was standing room only at the largest funeral home in town, plus the lobby was packed.  They had a bagpipes player, which is always an emotional experience.  But the hardest thing of all emotionally was the last call for a firefighter that goes out over the radio.  All the firefighters and police officers stand at attention and salute as the call goes out.  Except for the crackle of the radio, you could hear a pin drop.  Very impressive.   We also got word that Josh's wife, Christi's grandfather died.  He had been in an automobile accident several weeks ago, and was recovering slowly when he picked up pneumonia.  Looks like the funeral will be Monday.   In the afternoon I went to Kel's house over in Texas.  He had three ceiling fans to install in the house over there.  As is usually the case, we stumbled through the first installation.  I must have dropped the washers and nuts six times before we finally got it to stay up.  And at that we still were one nut short, if you don't count the two nuts who were trying to do the installation.  We never could find it amidst the mass of Legos.  I guess it will some day become a Lego man's hat or the top of a well or maybe a stone for a catapult.  Those Vaughan boys have a pretty fertile imagination.   I also got started reading a new book.  Transformational Church, by Ed Stetzer and Thom S. Rainer.  We got some information in the mail at Seaside about a Transformational Sunday School conference, so I figured I should study up before I recommended it.  So far the book is interesting.  It is a report of a sociological study done to figure out a better way of measuring "success" in churches.  My favorite part so far was when they said the whole process is more like a spiral than a timeline.  That creates a whole new paradigm for church leaders to try to grasp after years and years of being told to follow this plan or that program.  I'm anxious to see how that idea played out in the actual research.   Isaiah 48:17-18 says, "This is what the Lord says — your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: 'I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.  If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.'"   Father, thank you for that peace like a river.  Let the Norregaard family and Christi's family taste some of it this week.  Amen.