Jesus the roofer and Combinatin profanity

the little church we went to called Threads came over and did an extreme home cleanup makeover thing with us for a few days and we felt so blessed. As many people know this little church is no longer part of our life as we have a different vision for living it out now...a vision closer to what that place used to look like - not in size or demographic, but in being not attending.

Anyway, that was amazing when we got our house, and I was like wow, this is what being a Christian means and this is how you take care of each other and - WOW - being known as a Christian is something I want to be associated with because it is a GOOD THING!

People in the 'church' say "this is what you need to do" or "this is how you need to live" and then when we aren't as clean and good as the pastor and his squad sometimes we think to ourselves...jeez I'm not a very good Christian because I don't do this and that like so and so said I'm supposed to do.

I'm going to fill you in on a little secret...outside the church many of the 'Christians' you know, including the leadership, don't do all that stuff either most of the time. I can say that because I was an Elder, and a youth leader, and I didn't. I don't stop and feed every homeless person and I don't mow my neighbor's yard and I don't do everything right.

I got to see 'how it's supposed to be done' this weekend though.
This weekend, from Friday at Noon until Saturday evening at 8pm with little or no breaks a team of guys that I'm proud to call friends and family came over and roofed my home with me.

Side note for all of you that have heard the BS about pride issues and unteachable blah blah blah from the leadership that I called out at our former church, note that I'm proud of my friends and family in the above sentence, not proud of myself, or anything in relation to me so there is no need for a prayer vigil for me to 'come back' to Jesus - we're still tight.

Anyway, at 11:30am Friday my father in law and brother in law, and good old 'uncle Cleve' (you may remember him as 'hillbiliy' from the 'Beer Box Jesus' episode of The Gathering), showed up and began tearing off my roof, at 12:00 my friend Greg showed up and began working as well. Before I forget - I wasn't even home yet, I had a closing for work at 11:00AM that didn't end until 2:30PM.

In spite of me not being there, and they knew I wouldn't be, these guys gut there and when I got home and climbed my 'scared of heights butt' up on the 2nd story I was amazed to see 75% of the roof already torn off! They weren't just there doing stuff waiting for me - THEY WERE KILLING IT!

Why do you care about any of this??? Here's why...

It is easy to be impressed by smooth talking preaching. It is also easy to be impressed by great church programs and small groups that are phenominally well organized. Let's face it, it's easy to be impressed by things being 'done well' at the 'church' but it's funny that many of these things that impress us, weren't what Jesus deemed most important.

When asked what he thought most important he simply laid out 2 things: ...love God...love others...

Well, on my roof this weekend I have heard some creative ways to put together the F word with many other expletives in relation to heat, sweat, nails, shingles, and dumpster - and no matter how many times I heard the word's "damn this fuckin' nailer" I still saw Jesus and his love lived out the whole time.

Of all the guys that came over and worked on this roof in the 20+ hour 2 day experience only 1 was a Christ follower. As a matter of fact, hearing the opinions the others have about Christians would almost make you embarrased to be associated with that group of people representing Jesus. One friend said people that call themselves 'Christian' in my work just use it as an excuse to fuck you over and say sorry on Sunday.
Sadly, I heard almost the same sentence from a Christian friend who worked for a 'Christian' builder too.

Dad, Ryan, Bubba, Uncle Cleve, Greg, Terry, Rex my neighbor around the corner, Nick and Possum (yes, I said Possum), worked their regular day jobs then came over and busted their butts at my house for hours this weekend and I wanted to share this with everyone I know because these are the kinds of things Jesus said to do for each other.

I learned about love, again, from people that don't like 'Christians' and don't go to a 'church'. I witnessed humbling love that was more powerful than much of the love I've ever experienced in 'the church'. Not to say there aren't many friends that I have who love Jesus, and are very real, there are.

To me, love comes with honesty, and it's funny that I remember one former friend in reference to my brother in law quoting the 'don't cast your pearls before swine' line about not wasting time telling him about Jesus if he's just going to trample the message.....I think that guy needs to spend time with my brother in law to learn what being like Jesus looks like when the lip service is over, and when you aren't just trying to cover your own behind or further your own ministry.

I know I'm not very politically correct, and I'm sure there are things in this blog that will upset people who love Jesus. So what, I'm more concerned when I upset Jesus, and I think that Jesus would say to me, "Mat, I hope you were watching this weekend because I sent these guys to love on you and your family, they're my children, I love them - now make sure you give them grace, love them back, and tell everyone how you saw my love through them...even if they said things like 'ahhh, this damn-fucking nail gun is a piece of shit!"

So, thank you Jesus for your love and thank you Dad, Ryan, Dedes, Bubba, Uncle Cleve, Terry, Nick and Possum for all of your help! You are true friends and I love all of you even if you'll never read this!

Peace & love
m@

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