Actively Seek! (ex-SS students gathering!)

Oh man, I was about to sleep, but I had to blog about this before I went to bed! So tonight I hosted a Hot Pot, Games, and Sharing night for my former Gr.10 Sunday School kids (now currently Gr.11), and I have to say it was one of the most amazing nights I've ever had in my life. Seriously. First off it was so amazing to see so many of them out, especially because this grade has never hung out as a grade outside of Fridays and Sundays and so to see so many of them out gathered in one place to just chill and have fun was just amazing and God-planned! Then the sharing time we had as a group was truly something only God could have done because quite a few of them genuinely shared about how they were doing in their lives and just how God has been part of it. It was really awe-inspiring to see so many of them be so honest and just tell the group how they were doing, whether good or bad, and just to have that quiet time for bonding for the grade is something that was previously missing and hopefully will never be missing again! I'm so happy that this grade had this chance to do this, and honestly, us Sunday School teachers couldn't be happier with what happened and seriously it was all the Holy Spirit's work! I will never ever forget this night and I think I'll always have a soft spot for them just because I truly care and love them. I really pray for God to continue to work with this grade as well as each of the wonderful individuals as they continue to actively seek God in all their activities as well as when they seek each other for help during normal times. I'm really glad God delivered this theme across tonight and hopefully this theme will be something that will inspire many people as they continue on their spiritual growth and fellowship among various brothers and sisters in Christ.

Feel good story of the week

"Blackhawks pull together for Tallon"
By Jim Litke, Associated Press Columnist

In an era when it seems we can't get enough news about athletes, when every bar brawl, strip-club visit and parking-lot scrape merits a headline, the best story of the NHL season somehow managed to fly below the radar for nearly three weeks.

The story that's been dubbed "Millionaires Behaving Properly" was written in two small towns a few hours north of Toronto. It might have remained nothing more than local lore if not for the efforts of a few persistent e-mailers and fan message boards.

It begins with a young Blackhawks team in the middle of a wearying six-game road swing, having just beaten the Maple Leafs and learning that general manager Dale Tallon was staying behind to attend his father's funeral. The team had arranged a flight back to Chicago right after the Saturday night game to get some extra time at home before Thanksgiving and a West Coast swing.

Instead of boarding the plane home, though, the Blackhawks voted unanimously to check back into their hotel and charter two buses for a two-hour ride on a frigid Sunday morning to the rural Ontario town of Gravenhurst (pop. 11,000).

"It was a no-brainer that we're going to be there for Dale and his family," winger Adam Burish explained in a video posted the Blackhawks Web site Thursday, in response to numerous queries the club received. "Every guy in this locker room would say he's a guy you would do anything for."

The tale of a pro sports team pulling together when there's a death in its extended family isn't unique to hockey, of course. We saw it again this week as the New England Patriots went through preparations for Sunday's game at Oakland.

Quarterback Matt Cassell left practice Wednesday following the death of his father, but was back with the team the next day. The Patriots are still chasing the playoffs and Cassell, who's done a fair imitation of the injured Tom Brady since being pressed into service, gives them their best chance to win. But the last thing no-nonsense coach Bill Belichick was prepared to talk about was whether his young quarterback should play.

"It's bigger than football. I've been through that during the season as well," said Belichick, who lost his father in 2005, adding it was "a personal situation you just have to deal with."

What's unique about the Blackhawks' tale, and maybe hockey players in general, is that no one involved thought it was unusual enough to share with the rest of us. Part of it, no doubt, is because hockey resides at the edge of America's crowded pro sports radar -- at least until one player caves in a rival's head or tastelessly talks about his girlfriend. But the other part of it is hockey's ethos.

When people ask which athletes are the best interviews, I always say, "Hockey players, hands down." Not because they come up with the most colorful or controversial quotes, but because they're usually the most honest. For whatever reason -- the game's tradition, its Canadian roots, the fact that most players still labor at the low end of sport's stratospheric salary scale -- hockey guys tend to be more open, more polite and less impressed with their own stardom than their pro counterparts.

That very sentiment was expressed countless times in the e-mails that pinged around the Internet the last few weeks. As classy and worthy of attention as team's show of unity turned out to be, the consensus was no one in the Blackhawks thought to make a big deal out of it because they just assumed any hockey team would have done the same. Tallon agreed.

"At first, I was, 'OK, a couple of guys came.' But then, as more and more of them came through the door, I almost forgot where I was," the GM recalled in a phone call Thursday from Colorado. "I thought for a moment we were back in Chicago.

"But I looked around and saw all these kids and it made me feel really good about what we're doing," he added. "It's been our goal to have those types of players. I tell people my draft priorities are, in order: Character, speed, skill size and then more character. You can never have enough of that."

So wouldn't you know it: The story gets even better.

Somewhere along the bus ride back from Gravenhurst, a few of the players decided it would be a good idea to pull off the road and into a McDonald's. Burish said it was Patrick Kane's idea, or maybe it came from Jonathan Toews, since both budding superstars figured their trading cards would be at the bottom of the sacks of burgers and fries everyone ordered -- and they couldn't wait to rub it in.

Sure enough, posters of both players were tacked to a wall. And this being hockey-mad, small-town Ontario, it didn't take people in the place long to figure out who the two dozen millionaires in suits dropping by in the middle of a Sunday afternoon were. Any doubts were removed once Kane and Toews started showing off the trading cards to teammates, then signing autographs for some of the patrons.

Kane insisted in another video clip that he didn't know the promotion was going on, and denied Burish's claim the McDonald's stop was Kane's idea.

"He is probably just mad he didn't have one in there," Kane said, referring to a Burish trading card.

But Burish, being a hockey player and all, probably couldn't have cared less.

"Every Day Deserves a Chance" by Max Lucado

I got this book as one of my birthday gifts a week ago, and so on the bus the past 2 days, I finished reading this book, and to tell you the truth, I didn't get as much out of it as "Come Thirsty" and "Just Like Jesus", but I think that was Max Lucado's intention. I think this book was supposed to be short and straightforward to give the readers a simple message, and that is just to keep it simple, and look at each day in a positive and Godly way. The book talked a lot about allowing God to be the focus of your day and in that way, you will be able to enjoy the riches He has provided and maybe turn a not-so-good situation into a easier-to-manage one.

He gave a pretty simple acronym: G.O.D. (Grace. Oversight. Direction.) Basically, "saturate your day in his Grace", "entrust your day to his Oversight", and "accept his Direction". Very simple 3-point message, and I think it did its job.

Lastly, one message did caught my eye. Here's an excerpt: "When prodigals trudge up the path, God can't sit still. Heaven's throne room echoes with the sound of slapping sandals and pounding feet, and angels watch in silence as God embraces his child. You turn toward God, and he runs toward you." It's funny how we always here in the Prodigal Son story about how God is always there with open arms when you come back to him running. Sometimes, we neglect the fact that God is also running towards you to embrace your return to Him! It's amazing how God unconditionally loves us so much that even though we did so many bad things, He'll still run towards us when we turn back running towards Him. Truly remarkable. So the final question is: are we even trying to turn our focus back to God and give each day of our lives back to Him, even when we know that God is ready to run towards us and embrace us when we return?