Tornadoes

I know that many right now are suffering from having massive tornadoes literally tear their lives apart. I can’t fathom what it would be like to have a 15-minute warning to get all of your cherished possessions out of your house and be somewhere safe. We have witnessed a continued slew of natural disasters that have claimed the lives of thousands. In the midst of all of this mayhem there was a Radio Preacher who claimed that Christ was returning last Saturday. He and some of his followers spent 100’s of thousands of dollars on billboard and advertising. The hype unfortunately drew attention to the ultimate reality that Christ didn’t return and most in the media consider Mr. Camping a total space cadet.

Life does have its moments where you want to hide or pretend that you don’t exist. I have had a few major events the last couple of months that had their tornado side to them. Like having all of the paint of for one of our houses stolen the morning of the event. Doing a big event in a park only to be told by one of the HOA board members that they don’t want us to do this any more. This created some inner turmoil for me that Saturday even though we painted 5 houses, had 100 volunteers and had over 200 kids and adults enjoy a great BBQ in the park with a waterslide that entertained the youth for the day.

This last Saturday I partnered with my local Starbucks to host a large community event in the parking lot close to the store. We had spent the last 2 month organizing, inviting local businesses and non-profits to come out. We had a great turnout with local businesses including a great show from the Phoenix PD. The Police were amazing in showing up in great numbers and having a very positive presence. There was a local non-profit that uses horses as a means to help youth and adults with handicaps enjoy life. In the midst of all of the fun I had another one of those moments where I was in the center of another tornado. This time it was partial my fault for inviting a small local business, music store, whose owner had under investigation for an incident involving other fellow Phoenix Police.

I could tell by the look on the face of my Starbucks manager that I had created a bad situation with inviting my guitar friend to be there so we could use his PA system. I was ready for a lecture from the Lady Police Sargent who had helped with the event in a big way. I was told that I had compromised an ongoing investigation by having my guitar friend be at the event. I attempted to get both parties involved to compromise and not cause a scene. Unfortunately there were some egos on the line and I could tell that tempers flared as we discussed the situation. I realized that I had attempted to persuade two parties that weren’t open to negotiations to resolve the tension.

I know the feel of watching great things happening only to see a black cloud create some unfortunate bad vibes for some. Much like I had a couple of my teens make a scene at the Starbucks, which had graciously given us free drinks for the morning while we were helping setup the event. Again, you can attempt to strong arm a person to do what you think is right only to get their reaction which might be to get the h____ away from me. So I got the same attitude from my guitar friend, a police officer and now my teen. I know that in the end I asked a couple of the youth to apologize and thank the Starbucks for their generosity.

I don’t like the queasy feeling in your stomach when it comes to circumstances around me that I don’t totally control. As we wrapped up a big Saturday event for our neighborhood it was a great day. We had made some incredible contacts and were thankful for being able to dream something and actually see it come into existence. I am starting to realize that will always be tension between some people, plans that are well thought out might not really be perfect and people and teens do and say crazy things that can hurt others.

What stood out for the day was that an older lady, who I had talked to a little, took the bus for an hour to come out and help that Saturday. She truly blessed my day and I need to tell her that.