Chapter f=ma - The Christmas Adventure Bonus Level

Life is filled with adventures. God gives us opportunities everywhere we turn. Our only decision is to say 'yes' or 'no' to these open doors.

I choose to say 'Yes, Lord'. I don't know what or how you're working in something like this, but my answer is Yes.

I just got back from a twenty minute bike ride to east Hollywood. It's been a tiring night. What was on the agenda? Well, cleaning up a space to get ready for Christmas Eve service.

Here's the deal.

The place that the service is being hosted at just held a Toy Drive, giving away toys to the needy for this Christmas season. They had mountains of toys, clothes, bags, accessories, hygiene products, school utilities and others. And whatever that they didn't manage to give away was to be packed in boxes and sent to more needy people down in Mexico. Now, when I got there, the place was almost empty. Well, I say almost empty - in fact the tables were still loaded with things. But the lady in charge of the Toy Drive mentioned that they had helped more than 1200 people in the process, so I'm guessing a ton of it had already gone, but the fact remained that the remnant pile was huge.

So we were going to help pack up the rest into boxes, label and tape them up and store them aside, clearing the hall for our Christmas Eve service later today actually (it's one in the morning on Christmas Eve).

There's something magical about doing manual labor in the church. I don't know what it is, but there's something amazingly satisfying in all of it. I've had my fair share of doing manual work in the church - alot of heavy lifting and moving and setting up and tearing down - and it's just a joyous thing. There's no physical reward in it and it's a real tiring task and it really drains, but there's a joy that cannot be explained that comes as a reward. It's like God gives you this invisible pat on the back going 'well done'. It's amazing.

My feet are sore, my back is aching and my hands are tired to the bone. But I'm so happy I decided to say yes to going to this slightly far place at 10:00pm, riding through the cold, and going all the way just to work. I'm glad I decided not to stay at home.

And that just made my Christmas. There's nothing that instills the spirit of giving more than just giving yourself.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone.

There's more to come. One more adventure post before the long awaited KJ Super Christmas Ultimate Special of the Century's Best Ever.

It's a good one that one is and it'll be out Christmas Day. I promise. I have to tweak it abit more to make sure I don't forget anything. It's super long. And super special.

For now though, Merry Christmas Eve.