Pandora's Box and Other Life Lessons Learned At Church

(Post-dating some of the first blogs to catch most readers up to speed. This is in relationship to services at Hope Fellowship in Anderson, SC on Sunday, March 8, 2009. The congregation was given five to ten dollars a piece in envelopes and encouraged to pay-it-forward in one way or another.)


E-mail to Pastor Mark...


"So I was sitting in Hope, only my third time joining in worship there, and this "crazy guy" gives all of the congregation an envelope that is sealed. I sit there and ponder to myself, and wonder "how this is going to be tied into the message?" I honestly thought we were all going to open these envelopes and they were going to contain nothing material. I believed that they would contain our "hope". Kind of like a Pandora's Box in Greek Mythos. Because in the end all we do have is hope...

I stuck the envelope in my car above the passenger visor. I went to work immediately following services, but thought about it the whole time. I thought I had many "worthy" people that I could give it to, as I work in a restaurant, and they are synonymous with sin. Many that find refuge in the life of a server have instant gratifying needs; they feel the only way to satisfy those needs is with money each day. Sadly enough these are usually worldly sins that dictate much of their world, and in many ways make them and their families suffer needlessly. Whether it be drugs, alcohol, or just the ability or vice to blow money each day, I pity those that get stuck in that rut. I Once was like that. When my world fell apart a few years ago, I had no choice to "fall back" on to my ability to entertain and serve the masses. I came into it with knowledge of control and budgeting and knew what was important. So short story long, I didn't feel the need to fuel their addictions.

So as I went about my day-to-day, paying bills, I found that same five dollars. It was with the stack of tips I received over the weekend, which I was going to go deposit into my bank account. So I pulled it out and while I was downtown I randomly walked into The Daily Grind. I wanted to enjoy a nice "upside-down" Macchiato. So I set the barista in action with my complex order, but she was slightly taken aback by my perplexing ability to complicate the mundane. I knew this was a perfect time. So I told her that sometimes it takes just something small to alter the way we normally do things. This then can enable us to see beauty and understanding in everyday life. It is sometimes those things we tend to tune out because we are always so busy with the same routine. So I paid for the drink with my card (ironically enough less than three dollars), and pulled out that flat, crisp five-dollar bill and stood it on it's edge on the counter. I asked the barista if I could tell her a story and warned her I wasn't normally the "churchy" type. I wanted to share something else with her. I pointed to the the bill and told her that Sunday I enjoyed worship with my friends and was shocked, that somehow even though the story in II Kings about lepers had left my head, I still remember seeing a "crash of rhinos" opening envelopes that revealed money. She even gave an audible gasp at that point. So I told her that hopefully I had given her something more than just a five dollar tip...

On the small scale, I gave her a moment changing event, but I hope that the moment awoke her to the fact that no matter who, what, where, when, and how...there is always hope, and it can come in many different ways..."