Thursday, July 05, 2007

273 - Taz speaks

I meant to post this earlier.

Last Sunday was the holiday schedule at church, which means no morning classes, one combined service and no evening service. The do this because they take into account many people traveling and to give everyone else a break to spend time with family.

It would have been one of those perfect Sunday to skip or sleep in (what's that?), since I did not have the responsibility of teaching my class. Our pastor was in Mexico and you never know about that guest speaker.

I did go to church and our friend Taz who is a Chaplin in the Unites States Army was our guest speaker. I have never heard him speak from the pulpit. I have hear him many times over a cup of coffee. Taz was eloquent, funny, and he gave a great message that I think challenged a lot of believers. It was a simple message and I am not sure that I remember everything.

He related what it is that he does as a chaplin and what it is to live the Gospel or to live out the life of Christ. What it is to love somebody without an agenda. To listen and love without evangelizing or better yet following the Holy Spirits direction. He also spoke of unity amonst believers and respect of other faiths.

I have always been impressed by Taz. I've seen little things he does that is unselfish and loving to strangers - those things that I tend to struggle with. (Taz would probably tell you that he struggles with them too.)

I like that fact that Taz is sometimes frustrated with Christianity or the christian ghetto and his simple reaction is to be more like Christ, to love God and love others. If more of use would follow Christ's commandment...

Good bye and good luck, Taz. I hope our paths will cross again soon.

3 comments:

shakedust said...

I hope Taz gets a chance to read this before he leaves.

I always love to hear Taz speak and I was a little disappointed when I found out that I would be missing him speak. Few people match a real genuine personality with intellect the way he does. It sounds like I am laying it on, but I'm really not.

Achtung BB said...

I miss listening to Taz talk too. He would get frustrated at Christainity sometimes and would comment on how he wanted to challenge that or just do random acts of kindness that would surprise people or find it unexpected.

roamingwriter said...

I think there's a lot to be said to being Christ -- not just talking to people with the evangelism agenda. I had a guy once ask me if I was just being nice to proseltyze him. I hadn't even thought about it, but it was convicting.