Help wanted and available

Readings:

Sirach  3, 17-18, 20 28-29,  My child, conduct your affairs with humility.

Psalm 68,  God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.

Hebrews 12, 5-7, 18-19,    You have approached Mount Zion

Luke 14, 13-18,  When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, & the blind.

Buddy says, "Hi, Folks, Welcome in."

Sirach observations

Author :  The author is Sirach or Joshua, a Jewish scribe.  The book of 51 chapters is one of the “in between books,”  more or less 12 of them.  In other words, their genuiness is questioned.  The Catholic Church accepts them; the Protestants don’t. 

Date:  about 200 years before Christ. 

Tori, too, says, "Good Morning, Everybody, Come in."

Subject:   Ethics, norms for good Jewish living.  For example, “Do not compliment a person on his good looks,” (11, 2), or “Never abandon an old friend; you will never find a new one who can take his place,” (9, 10), or “Friendship is like wine, it gets better as it gets older,” (9, 10), or Don’t prevent the poor from making a living, or keep them waiting in their need,” (4,1).

Today’s subject:  Humility.

Sources: Good News Bible

Hebrews:  The last week for this work, hooray!

Anybody want to go for a nice 100 mile bike ride?

Invite the poor, the crippled, and the lame.

Rosemary asked me Friday afternoon how come I so look forward to riding 100 miles in the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred.  At the time we were driving to Wichita Falls to grab a place on the floor on one of 5 racquet ball courts of the YMCA.  For $30 you can put your air mattress anywhere in the building and in the morning a simple breakfast is provided. 

I thought about why I so look forward to this even and came up with 3  big reasons.  Here they are.

Want a bike?  Over  500 to choose from.  These bike are being stored for the night on the 4th floor gym of the Wichita Falls YMCA.  The owners are skattered all around the building on the floor on their air mattresses.   A deal for $30.

First, motivation to get into good shape.  I eat healthily, we ride around White Rock together, I do spin classes, and I get my weight where I would like it to stay all year.  Events like this energize me.

In fact, now that the event has passed, I feel like a good friend has departed.  I wonder what next will energize me.  Actually, I do look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, but these events do not energize me to eat healthy and work out extra.

Mile 30 rest stop.  My favorite.  The women volunteers bake dozens of about 5 varieties of cookies and hand them out.   Their hospitality is over the edge.

Secondly, there is an esprit about the 100 miles.  I spent more time this year at the rest stops.  There are about 10 of them on the 100 miles.  Everything is free, water, gatoraide, varieties of cut up fruit, and cookies.  And over the top hospitality. 

I was talking with one of the lady volunteers at mile 40.  She was walking around among a couple hundred riders holding a tray of cookies and handing them out.  She told me that all the workers are volunteers and that she, as one of the volunteer coordinators, has to turn volunteers away, so many want to help out.  These are people from Wichita Falls, older folks, middle agers, lots of high school kids, and even some small kids.  She said, too, that people look forward to the August event all year long.

Mile 40 rest stop.  Not to be outdone by their neighbor volunteers, these ladies for the first year also provided home made cookies.  It is really hard on us riders.  The women walk around with trays of cookies.  Also, at this rest stop volunteers stand on the edge of the road and offer to hold your bike while you visit the port-o-potty and eat cookies.  More over the edge hospitality.

Finally, in line with the gospel about inviting everybody to your party, this party has them all.  Young and old.  I saw some very young kids riding.  And I may have been one of the oldest at 76.  There are men, there are women.  There are whites, blacks, and in betweens.  For me it is beautiful example of the American experience of unity among many.

What experiences do you have that energize you? 

Mile 78 rest stop.  My second favorite, not because of a lack of hospitality, but because of the shade from a large grove of pecan trees.  You see a lot of gassed riders at this rest stop.  For them cots and cold, wet towels are provided, along with all the other fruits, Clif bars, shot blocks, and foods.  At mile 50 this year even hot dogs were provided with all the fixings.  You pay $35, and all this is for the rider.  Everybody is welcome to this party.