Fireworks that work

As a fellowship we celebrated the 4th of July last night setting off a lot of fireworks. It was a blast, (pun intended) getting together with friends and family for the evening. I'm not sure how much we really spent on the fireworks but I would say that it was enough. We had some from our fellowship, some great friends that drove across town to come out and spend the evening with us and a few guests.

During our time setting off the fireworks one of my friends had one misfire and almost went off in his hand. I think that is why the instructions tell you to never hold a "Roman Candle" in your hand while lighting it. One explosion went off very close to his ear and he had to through it to save himself from a real injury. Most of the rest of the fireworks did however go off properly. That's nice since family owns the fireworks stand.

I had the chance to meet some new people last night and one of the families came to visit us this morning for worship. They came last night with one of the members of our fellowship and I was introduced to them just before we left the event. As I talked with them this morning they said that they really enjoyed the worship experience and were planning on returning. To me that made the whole event worth while.

Reaching out to people is a lot like setting off fireworks. There is that great anticipation of what you will see as you get the fireworks ready to light. Then there is the effort to get that little fuse lit in the dark, (some one should come up with a way to make those things glow in the dark). Once the fuse is lit there is the adrenaline rush as you move away hoping that what you are about to see was worth the money, effort and time. Sometimes there is that misfire that almost sends you off to the emergency room. That's never fun but we always come back for more fireworks. Most of the time the display of sound and color and lights is worth it all. When we reach out to new people we are never given a guarantee that the response will be a good one. But when you work hard at building relationships, risking your comfort zone and try to help point people to the one who brought peace into your life the end result is spectacular! So to all of you out there that like fireworks, try to light up a life this week. Light that fuse even though it's hard to see sometimes and step back to see if it was worth it.
Scriptures tell us that the angles in heaven celebrate over the soul turned to Christ. My guess is that that celebration is better and bigger than the one we had last night.

Just my thoughts,

Riceburnermonk