Love is amazing...whether it's Valentine's Day or not! Right now I am collecting stories of times that somehow expressed love to another person. I am going to video people telling about a time when someone expressed love to them in some way. Yesterday afternoon I taped a video of Dennis Hall, Pastor here at Friendship Community Church, telling a simple story of how someone went out of their way to help him and what a difference it made to him.

I'll be taping and editing and posting video tales of love. We all need to hear about how life can be good sometimes and what a difference a little love can make.

Yesterday afternoon I spent a little time walking down memory lane. I went through a file I have of programs/schedules from an event I used to attend in Findlay, Ohio each year called Workshop. It was for teenagers and I first attended it in 1965...I was a week or so shy of being 15 then. I made a lot of great friends there over the years as I grew up and helped at the event by singing and being on staff and eventually getting to be one of the directors. I attended 25 in a row, through 1989.

I experienced so many things there because it was a place that I looked forward to going back to each year. Seeing old friends, making new ones, and feeling comfortable in a life that wasn't always comfortable. I moved lots of times over those years but returning to Findlay was like a safe haven. Connecting with good friends and Jesus. There were good speakers and good music but the best was the friendship and the times spent with God.

Maybe you have a memory like that. It could be a path you walk down, a tree you used to climb and now sit under or lean against, an event you attend, a family get-together, a class reunion, or regular talks on the phone...or now chats on the Internet or connecting on Facebook.

It's nice to have a past memory to reflect on. Oh, and the picture here is of myself and some friends from the summer of 1970 at Workshop. I'm the second one in from the left.

This morning I have been reading. First the Bible, a good place to start--finished up the Old Testament book of Ezra. Those guys had it rough trying to rebuild the temple and restore their relationship with God.

Then I pulled out magazines that I "need" to read. I read/skimmed through the Nov./Dec. 2008 issue of Outreach. Good article on The Joy of Sacrifice about Francis Chan. He and his family moved from a nice 2,000 square foot California home into an old, beat-up 1,000 square foot home to give more to the poor around them and around the world. A lot of Christians didn't understand why he would do this. He's speaking at a conference I am going to in April so that should be good to learn more. And I could find a book by him, Crazy Love. Ever notice how reading one book or article often leads to another one?

Then I moved on to Collide magazine. I'm still working through it but I came across a brief article on iamsecond.com . I went on their site and there are a whole lot of videos of people telling their stories of learning to be second, to put God first. Stories of addiction, bad marriages, etc. told simply by the people who lived the stories. Check out a story or two, you can even interact with the site.

OK, so it's time to dive back into reading. Never know what I'll discover.

By the way, here's a video of Francis Chan. He says some powerful things.

All of us enjoy it when we get a second chance. But so often we aren't so quick to give second chances to others. Here is a great video of kids who got a second chance when and where they least expected it.