Sunday Reflections (February 10)

Yesterday, Dave and I dropped off Miss G at the nursery, walked to our seats in the second row, and sat down to read our bulletins together for the first time in so long we couldn't even remember the last time we'd attended an entire service together.

It was an amazing service to attend, too. Our church has special weekends a few times each year when we invite high-profile guests to share their stories. We've had sports legends, television stars, and simply inspiring people who have walked through heartache and come out stronger because of Christ's work in their lives. Anyway, our church's guest this past weekend was Matthew Luhn. His name may not be familiar, but you definitely know his work if you've seen Pixar movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Up. Matthew Luhn is one of the many people involved in creating the stories we enjoy when we watch Pixar films.

Matthew grew up with a family who encouraged him to use his gift of drawing. They didn't squash his dreams but instead encouraged him to shoot for the stars in his career. He ended up working as an animator for The Simpsons at the age of 19. As a parent, I was really encouraged by this example of being your child's number one cheerleader. Once G gets old enough to exhibit some of her gifts, I hope to be able to encourage her to use them. As a Christian, I hope to encourage her to use those gifts in service to God, who blessed her with them. She may not become a superstar, and that's okay. My prayer is that she does the best she can do with what God has given her.

One of the favorite things I heard in the service was something our pastor said during the altar call. He said, "The problem is that we want to write our own story. And then we mess it all up." It is certainly human nature to pluck that pencil from our life's Author and begin to write our own version of the story. But that only leads to a bunch of crumpled up paper. Instead, we need to let God hold the pencil and trust that his story for our lives is a true masterpiece and better than anything we could ever create.