it’s the most wonderful

group of the year!  Our lifegroup celebrated together tonight with a fab-tastic dinner and a goofy white elephant gift exchange.  As I look back on the past year, it’s been an incredible mix of thrilling highs and terrible lows.  We’ve learned a lot from each other, about each other, and about Jesus.  People have chosen to be vulnerable, to reveal some pretty raw emotional things.  Some folks have taken risks that took them out of comfort zones.  We’ve served together and laughed together and prayed together and played together, shared meals and burdens and stories and journeys and worries and joys.

In short, we’ve done life together.

It hasn’t been perfect.  Some folks have dropped out of the group.  Our schedules haven’t always worked out to our liking.  Some of us have discovered that our wants and needs don’t align with those of the others in the group.  We haven’t prayed our served or worshiped as much as I thought we would.  But we’ve built some deep relationships, we’ve opened our hearts to embrace some new people in the group, and to embrace the mission of God in this world.  We’ve given and loved, pushed our boundaries, and made some changes in the ways we structure to serve more people and open more opportunities.

It’s been a good year…

I wasn’t sure how the gift exchange was going to go tonight.  In fact, for most of the time it was pretty tame.  Then Ben started the gift-snatching (stealing is apparently a bad word).  Once he broke the ice, the gloves came off and the real game began.  I drew early, selecting a lovely set of mugs and cocoa.  Not exactly what I had in mind for me.  Shortly after my draw, Becky ripped off the paper to reveal a State College Spikes lunchbox–much to her dismay.  I saw her eyeing my cocoa & mugs, and I gave her the “You likey?” eye.  She immediately responded with a sign to the affirmative, and a trade was in the works.  When the dust settled Becks walked away with the mugs & cocoa, but I was the clear winner in that deal.  As the chaplain for the State College Spikes, this lunchbox is the bomb-diggity.

Sadly my gift went unwanted.  I wrapped the remote control to a 55″ big screen projection tv in a cigar box.  The person who took the gift got the tv–not just the remote.  Turns out that the guy was more interested in the cigar box.

Does anyone want a big tv?  Team Sublett has enjoyed it, but we don’t have room for it…