On the Road Again

Back in 2003, Sharon and I took an 11,000 mile, 33 state road trip. It was amazing. On that trip I journaled about things I saw and, in some cases, the spiritual parallels. (These musings became a book that is in its 4th printing. One batch of 100 at Kinkos that were actually bound and looked like a book and 3 copies on a Xerox machine on 81/2 x 11 paper.) Well, today Sharon and I hit the road again, but with a more moderate itinerary. We'll be in 8 states and British Columbia.

Toward the end of today we were using the GPS to find someplace to eat. We located Pizza Bella, an Italian restaurant in Mesquite, Nevada. The food was good and we were glad we randomly found this great little, non-franchised restaurant. As we got out of the air-conditioned car into the high 90's, low 100's Nevada heat, we both noticed the front door of the restaurant. There on the metal pull bar of the door, permanently affixed with a zip strip, was a towel. It took us both a moment to understand. This was a cultural thing. Rather than risking a lawsuit over third-degree burns on the customer's palm, these restaurateurs have anticipated what the heat does to metal door handles and the dire consequence to the very people they want to reach. Rather than sitting around complaining about the heat, they have taken steps to do what they can to minimize the problem. They certainly weren't going to be able to do anything about the heat and they probably were not going to move their restaurant to a colder clime. After all, if they moved the restaurant to Nome, what are the people in Mesquite going to do for fine Italian dining. So while they couldn't do everything, they did what they could.

How many churches today make excuses for why people won't come. The facilities, the staff, the music. I read through the book of Numbers this morning and was struck again with the incessant whining of the Israelites. Things were never good enough. In fact, slavery in Egypt looked better to them than their current circumstance. How easily we look back at the good old days and complain about today instead of doing what we can today to make each person's experience at church as good as it can be. Maybe we all need to zip strip a few more towels to our door handles and invite people in. They may find what they're looking for.