February 2, 2007

Dear family and friends of WCPC:

Super Bowl Sunday!  I discovered long ago not to schedule anything on Super Bowl Sunday.  It’s almost a national holiday. Kind of amazing the amount of attention and focus that has been given to the game this week. Even people who aren’t football fans will want to watch, if only to see the commercials.

While I was in South Carolina a friend and fellow pastor, Brad Smith, the Associate Pastor at Spring Valley Presbyterian Church, in Columbia, South Carolina, along with the youth of that church had a vision. Why not ask people on Super Bowl Sunday to donate at least $1 dollar to assist the hungry in the Columbia, South Carolina area.  It was a simple idea and it caught on.  The next year several other churches got involved and now, today, Brad is the Executive Director of The Souper Bowl Of Caring.  This is what Brad has on their wed site: “The Souper Bowl of Caring is a youth-led, grassroots movement of caring, the result of thousands of young people joining together to fight hunger and poverty in their communities. Since 1990, $33 million has been raised for charities across the country.”

Sometimes we think that we can’t really make a difference with our lives.  I think Brad’s experience with the youth of Spring Valley illustrates that we can.  We often make two mistakes.  Either we overestimate what can be accomplished and over promise, or we underestimate what can be accomplished and we don’t do anything out of fear of failure.  Maybe the best approach is simply to allow God to use our lives however God sees fit to do so.  To be open to taking some risks, trusting God for the outcome.  God hasn’t called us to be successful, but to be faithful.  Sometimes, as in the case of “The Souper Bowl” we can see first hand the results of that faithfulness.  Sometimes it takes longer.  Sometimes we are privileged to plant seeds that others will water and still others will see flower. 

 See you on Sunday, and remember to bring along an extra dollar!