Be Curious About Curious Things

The Past 5 days

The storm, “Sandy” has devastated Manhattan. Over the past five days, Forefront staff and volunteers have been working shifts around the clock delivering, generators, food, lights, gas, and toiletries to hundreds of people in need.

I grabbed Matt Kern to help me make some supply-rounds at the organizations we are assisting last night. Matt, stood up through the sun roof in the car as I drove through the pitch black streets. He took 700 photos. (In the post below are ten of them).

Mega thanks to Orchard affiliates in Boston, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and northern Manhattan for supplying us with supplies to feed, house, and keep people warm. Your generosity is overwhelming.

If you are able to help materially, financially, or physically, please go to forefront church.com/sandy to see a “current needs” list and how you can contribute.

If you are reading this in New York and are in need of assistance, please email [email protected]

Dear Photograph,

It was only 2 years ago, while gardening with my family and children at the St.Mary Organic Farm, that my son Alex, age 2, ran up to this tree and hugged it. I quickly snapped a photo, thinking to myself,  ”awww… he’s a tree hugger”.  Then, just like that, he leaned in and gave the tree a gentle kiss. Three days later, on September 17th, 2010,  Alex died unexpectedly in his sleep. Now when I look at this photograph, and look into his eyes, I see he is hugging the tree just like he would hug his mother’s or father’s leg whenever he ran to greet us. With his little arms wrapped tightly around the tree, he seemed to be listening in a very comforting and knowing way. This image of Alex is what I referred to immediately after his death and it has given me the solace to know in my heart that he is exactly where he is supposed to be.

Early Bird Special: Oh, PSY — so unoriginal.

I notice I gravitate toward women who do not find pretty boys attractive.  They like chip teeth and scars and lines they call character.  They find imperfection perfect and “love” little things about you that you actually don’t like or ever thought about.  Like the mole on the back of your right ear.  I find these women attractive because they see the world differently.  Predictable is boring.  They like salt.  They see beauty in things that many don’t.  They would rather discover attraction than let the world tell them what is attractive.  In looking back, every woman I have been in a relationship with has fallen into this category.  They’ve all been women with strong opinions and tastes, extremely intelligent and well read.  And yet, they were striking by commercial standards.  But their looks alone wasn’t why I pursued them.  It was this difference in taste.  I am not saying that women who find Jake Gyllenhaal “hot” have a lower IQ.  But they do have different lenses.  I just notice a pattern with women who prefer Ledger over Gyllenhaal.  They are less obvious, and that to me is sexy.  

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit” (Galatians 6:9, the Message)

God has put dreams and desires in every person’s heart. We all have goals we want to accomplish and situations we are believing will be turned around. Sometimes it seems to take longer than we thought. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we planned, and it’s easy to lose enthusiasm. Negative thoughts come to us that say, “It’s never going to change.” “You’re never going to get well.” “You’re never going to get out of debt.” If we’re not careful, we’ll get discouraged and end up just settling where we are. Many times, people miss out on God’s best simply because they give up too soon. They don’t realize how close they are to their victory.