Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Cool In Every Way

Hello All,

Today was just great. First of all, it's July and every morning begins with an overcast sunrise. The sun burns it off and then it's warm for a while. Then in the evening, the cool air returns as the sun goes down. I was thinking about Summer in the I.E. or in Spain. In either place, a July day began with sun, heat and loads of sweat. In fact, what I "miss" is having to go out to the parking lot to my car, remove the towel from my steering wheel and waiting to move in until the air conditioning brings down the internal temperature to just below inhumane! Another favorite summertime constant was "forearm sweat." All this to say, I am so happy to enjoy this summer in typical O.C. style!

The second piece of cool is that Vacation Bible School is in full swing at Kingsfield Church. Today, I even got in on the action, playing the part of Pastor Pablo in the skit. Yes, playing Pastor Pablo was not much of a stretch. I did feel that I could have stretched out and played a Pastor from some other race, say a Swede for example, but as I heard "Holas" rain in the hallways from all of the kids, I knew I had done my part. Perhaps next year, I'll be allowed to play Pastor Sven from Sweden. I think that I have sufficient range, I just need some people to stop casting me in the Mexican Pastor role.

On a quick side note, I have been having a lot of fun trying to convince my kids that I and Pastor Pablo are two different people. "It just so happens that he looks a lot like me." "Really, do I own a sombrero?" By the end of the day, I think I might have convinced Caleb that Pastor Pablo is an entirely different person, which is also pretty cool!

Finally, the last and best "cool" thing that I am celebrating in this post, was the conversion of a person who came into my office at the final hour of the day. It was a wonderful experience that I have been privileged to have many times before. But this is always so amazing. Each time carries with it an exceptional blessing. And it always happens the same way: Someone comes in and I have this immediate openness to them. There is an instant compassion that goes beyond the norm.

I attribute this to the humility that accompanies people in this condition. They are not sure what to say or think. They are not hampered by Christianese or silly theological theorems, so they just shoot straight, which is utterly refreshing. They are so open to the Lord and so easy to win because God has already done all of the work in softening their hearts and drawing them to Himself. All I need to do is seal the deal. I don't need to convince them or fight through all of the usual "objections." With a person like the one who came into my office, all I have to do is point them in the right direction. As I led this person to Christ, I rejoiced in my spirit and thanked the Lord for the chance to participate in this person's redemption.

Now, please don't misunderstand me. I realize that there is a place for contending for the faith, and apologetics in this world. I appreciate men and women who minister in this way and I can do this. With a person like the one who came into my office today, I'll sit and answer honest objections until I am unable to do so. I enjoy that kind of discourse. But when a person is just disingenuously distracting from the issue of personal commitment to Christ, then I lose all interest.

To this brother, I write: Thank you for responding to Jesus Christ! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share His love and grace to you!

Alright, so the final cool thing for this evening...this is the 300th post that I have written! "Gee whiz, how much more can he write about?" We'll see.

Blessings...To Our Friends,
Frank Sanchez

1 comment:

Patty said...

That is too cool about the newest member of the family of Christ!

Also, I have to comment on how excited am at reading about your involvement in VBS. What an awesome season we are in! All of you worship ministry types have kids and a reason to want to participate. I cannot tell you how much fun VBS has been for us since Robert, Steve, JoJo, and Isy decided to get involved. As Lela, Christin, and myself can attest to; you guys are just a bunch of big kids and VBS gives you a place to play that out. And an even bigger blessing that happens is that the kids start to feel a connection with regular worship because of the connection they made with you during VBS. Good stuff =D.