So today was a little different for us as our normal spot in the park has been destroyed and looks more like a war zone than our normal Sunday gathering spot. Seems the city of Omaha has begun the process of removing the trees from and redesigning that corner. They moved pretty quickly to get this going. My guess is they moved so swiftly so as to avoid any kind of obstruction to the project. I mean, anyone who knows how a city government operates knows that this kind of thing doesn’t happen overnight. Yet in this case, they did almost that. The funny thing about it is they did it under the guise of allowing downtown business people the opportunity of having "lunch alfresco" in the park. Now I work downtown. Not sure I remember the last time anyone in my office mentioned the phrase "lunch alfresco". In fact, I’ve never heard that phrase. The fact of the matter is that our homeless friends are unsightly to some and they’d probably just as soon push them to another part of the city. Now maybe that’s not the case and maybe it is. I don’t know. I do know that one of the other reasons mentioned was the colossal amount of bird poop in the park and on the sidewalks from the starlings in the park. And it was a lot. But I’m not sure that’s the best reason to hack down 20 or 30 mature trees and kick ‘em to the curb. Maybe a good power washing would be more cost effective? Those trees provided so much shelter from the sweltering summer sun. So often during the summer, Id comment to anyone who’d listen as to how much shade they provided. At any rate, we had to shift our whole operation today about a half a block south and do His thing a little differently. The main thing for us though was to remember that we have a distinct reason for being there. One of the things that got us down to that corner in the first place was the fact that doing something like this would get us out of our comfort zone. Well guess what’s kind of happened for us over the past couple of years? We’d perhaps fallen into a bit of a comfort zone on that very corner. How bizarre is that? And now we had to remove ourselves from that comfort zone, that place that we’ve been able to call home for a few hours each week for the past couple of years and rethink how we were going to do it. Funny, that. So today I made a point of not over thinking it. Oh we had lots of different opinions on what we should do. How we should set things up. Where we should set things up. One individual was fairly persistent in voicing his opinion. I’ll leave that for another day. Anyway, we got going right about our normal time and things went very well. Funny how that happens when we don’t try to over think things. I mean, it’s not like we have any control over this stuff. We simply need to be the hands and feet. Definitely not the brain. Not my strong suit for sure.
So it was a pretty normal Sunday. If anything associated with this thing qualifies as normal. I mean, what is normal? Pretty ambiguous term really. Here’s the thing. I’ve gotten to know about a couple hundred or more people over the past couple of years. People I definitely would not have become acquainted with otherwise. And it all happened under a stand of trees in a park in downtown Omaha. Right across the street from the office I where I work. And in the same vicinity where literally tens of millions of dollars are being spent tearing down existing buildings so tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars can be spent erecting brand new condo and office towers. Yet each and every Sunday I have people, adults mind you, asking me for help acquiring new shoes. Needing a winter coat. Winter boots. Socks. And there are probably tons of things we haven’t even thought of yet. The dichotomy is bizarre to me. I mean this thing we do can be so simple. I used a young lady’s report a few weeks ago to display what others see in this thing we do every week. She came today with the most amazing poster board presentation. And on the outside, around the edges of the tri-fold poster that she’d constructed were the following lyrics to a popular song…"If everyone cared and nobody cried, If everyone loved and nobody lied, If everyone shared and swallowed their pride, Then we'd see the day when nobody died…". I guess I look around and wonder what this crazy world would look like if everyone maybe cared just a little more. Even back to the doggone trees. As I read her presentation, and I have to tell you she did an amazing job on this thing, I was amazed at what she was able to capture with just a few well placed pictures and a few well written words. And the fact that we’ve gathered under those trees weekly for almost two years without fail had me feeling a little sad about the fact that our weekly gatherings were now going to be different. No more shade in the summer when the sun is beating us down. And more importantly, no more shade for our friends. Now I’ve seen artist renderings of what the corner will look like when it’s completed and I’m actually mildly excited about the prospects. But do we really need to spend a truckload of money on something that was fine to begin with when there is so much need right here in our city? I simply hope that they don’t attempt to move us to a different part of the city like they do our homeless friends. Because I don’t think we’re going anywhere. And I pray that they don’t ask us to leave. We’ll cross that bridge when and if necessary, but needless to say, we are in for the long haul. I had to make sure our friends knew that today. Seems that someone told them last week we wouldn’t be there. So I made sure to reiterate that unless they hear it directly from Robin or myself, or they happen to catch Gabriel steppin’ out on a cloud blowin’ that sweet, sweet sound, then they should be there. Because, the Lord willing, we’ll be there.
So it feels almost like an old friend is gone today. Not to be overly dramatic, but it just seemed odd as I looked at Mickaela’s presentation and looked at the pictures and just thought back to all the crazy things that have happened on that corner. And that is strictly from a selfish standpoint. That doesn’t even take into account the feelings I get when thinking about how our friends have now lost yet another place to escape from the heat and whatever other weather is thrown at them. I guess what it boils down to for me is I really don’t like change. Especially change that I have no say in. As if I have any say so in anything anyway. I’m sure this will turn out well. I even said as much to several people today. In fact I can’t wait to see what changes they have in store for us on that corner. But since it was the place where we made our first attempt at this sort of thing, the place where we first felt led to do His work and the place where we now have so many memories, I’ll always have a soft spot for it. Thankfully, we have lots of pictures. And now we’ll have to make new memories. With our friends and family. On 14 and Douglas. Every Sunday at noon.
And my friend Eric asked me a strange question today. The question went something like this…"Dave, you know how when someone thanks you for something and you point upward? What do people in Australia do in that case?" And I think he was mildly serious. I had no answer…I just laughed.
Peace and have a great and blessed week.
Make a difference.
…it matters to that one… :)
So it was a pretty normal Sunday. If anything associated with this thing qualifies as normal. I mean, what is normal? Pretty ambiguous term really. Here’s the thing. I’ve gotten to know about a couple hundred or more people over the past couple of years. People I definitely would not have become acquainted with otherwise. And it all happened under a stand of trees in a park in downtown Omaha. Right across the street from the office I where I work. And in the same vicinity where literally tens of millions of dollars are being spent tearing down existing buildings so tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars can be spent erecting brand new condo and office towers. Yet each and every Sunday I have people, adults mind you, asking me for help acquiring new shoes. Needing a winter coat. Winter boots. Socks. And there are probably tons of things we haven’t even thought of yet. The dichotomy is bizarre to me. I mean this thing we do can be so simple. I used a young lady’s report a few weeks ago to display what others see in this thing we do every week. She came today with the most amazing poster board presentation. And on the outside, around the edges of the tri-fold poster that she’d constructed were the following lyrics to a popular song…"If everyone cared and nobody cried, If everyone loved and nobody lied, If everyone shared and swallowed their pride, Then we'd see the day when nobody died…". I guess I look around and wonder what this crazy world would look like if everyone maybe cared just a little more. Even back to the doggone trees. As I read her presentation, and I have to tell you she did an amazing job on this thing, I was amazed at what she was able to capture with just a few well placed pictures and a few well written words. And the fact that we’ve gathered under those trees weekly for almost two years without fail had me feeling a little sad about the fact that our weekly gatherings were now going to be different. No more shade in the summer when the sun is beating us down. And more importantly, no more shade for our friends. Now I’ve seen artist renderings of what the corner will look like when it’s completed and I’m actually mildly excited about the prospects. But do we really need to spend a truckload of money on something that was fine to begin with when there is so much need right here in our city? I simply hope that they don’t attempt to move us to a different part of the city like they do our homeless friends. Because I don’t think we’re going anywhere. And I pray that they don’t ask us to leave. We’ll cross that bridge when and if necessary, but needless to say, we are in for the long haul. I had to make sure our friends knew that today. Seems that someone told them last week we wouldn’t be there. So I made sure to reiterate that unless they hear it directly from Robin or myself, or they happen to catch Gabriel steppin’ out on a cloud blowin’ that sweet, sweet sound, then they should be there. Because, the Lord willing, we’ll be there.
So it feels almost like an old friend is gone today. Not to be overly dramatic, but it just seemed odd as I looked at Mickaela’s presentation and looked at the pictures and just thought back to all the crazy things that have happened on that corner. And that is strictly from a selfish standpoint. That doesn’t even take into account the feelings I get when thinking about how our friends have now lost yet another place to escape from the heat and whatever other weather is thrown at them. I guess what it boils down to for me is I really don’t like change. Especially change that I have no say in. As if I have any say so in anything anyway. I’m sure this will turn out well. I even said as much to several people today. In fact I can’t wait to see what changes they have in store for us on that corner. But since it was the place where we made our first attempt at this sort of thing, the place where we first felt led to do His work and the place where we now have so many memories, I’ll always have a soft spot for it. Thankfully, we have lots of pictures. And now we’ll have to make new memories. With our friends and family. On 14 and Douglas. Every Sunday at noon.
And my friend Eric asked me a strange question today. The question went something like this…"Dave, you know how when someone thanks you for something and you point upward? What do people in Australia do in that case?" And I think he was mildly serious. I had no answer…I just laughed.
Peace and have a great and blessed week.
Make a difference.
…it matters to that one… :)
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