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In some ways I feel like I missed out on my childhood. Dad drank, parents fought and we were scared. It’s a pretty common tale. Maybe you lived something similar. As an adult I sometimes feel like I’m making up for some lost laughter. So I’m pretty much up for any adventure.
My friend Jeff was a newspaper columnist and he was invited to compete in the World Championship grilled cheese eating contest. When I found out I invited myself to come watch him compete. There wasn’t much to see before the competition, although the event planners did have on display the “Virgin Mary” grilled cheese. It’s a sandwich with the image of Mary miraculously toasted into the bread. I’ve never seen Mary so I’ll have to take their word for it. As we waited we heard that they were down an eater so the event planners asked if anyone wanted to be a last minute contestant. I could not pass up the opportunity. I finished with a grand total of 4 sandwiches eaten, but in fairness I stopped at Taco Bell on the way in. Out of 12 competitors, I finished 10th, just ahead of the pro wrestlers they hired to stage a fight during the competition. For a time, I was in the top ten in the world in competitive grilled cheese eating. Later that year I followed Jeff to Knott’s Berry Farm and finished in the top ten in the World Championship peanut butter and jelly eating contest.
I love live sporting events. I have stood on the M at the Big House at Michigan and next to the leprechaun at Notre Dame. Years ago this love of tickets spawned an idea. What if I showed up at a sporting event with only a sign that said, “I need one free ticket. I’ll buy you a beer?” The first time I tried it at a college football bowl game I didn’t even get off the shuttle bus before an elderly couple asked me to join them. We sat in the 10th row. I excused myself to call my wife to tell her I got in and when I returned the couple had bought me a hot dog. Since then I have used a similar sign to get into multiple sporting events. A group of 50 optometry students on a field trip gave me a bleacher seat to Fenway Park and a couple nice ladies treated me to a $500 ticket to watch a Rams playoff game during their Super Bowl run.
God has used that passion for adventure to lead me around the world. After an earthquake rocked Haiti, my wife felt like God was putting it on her heart to go. She went and I followed. Over the course of many trips we fell in love with the Haitian people. Our friends in Haiti have almost nothing and yet they have become joy mentors that taught me to rejoice in all circumstances. One such mini-mentor was a little girl named Daphlie. Her smile and laughter were infectious. She felt like family so we decided to make it official and started the adoption process. Four years and fifteen fingerprinting’s and four hundred pieces of officially notarized documents later we brought Daphlie home. I still get emotional when I remember walking out of that terminal with 40 of our friends and family chanting “Daphlie! Daphlie!”
I don’t have a lot of fun filled memories from my childhood, but I do have one that I will never forget. I was at a concert and heard a message about a Heavenly Dad very different from the one I grew up with. This new Dad promised peace and joy and laughter and adventure. That is the life I have lived since our introduction. Not only that, but my Heavenly Dad reached my earthly dad and that relationship was repaired as well.
If you are in a season where you need peace and joy and laughter, I would love to introduce you to my Heavenly Dad. Each of my messages unpacks this relationship with a God that wants more and better for us so that we can live into the fullness of who we were designed to be. Let the adventure begin!