Since I didn’t have any place that I was supposed to be, I decided that I’d make my way back across the mall to JC Penney.  I mean, I completely ignored the store for the first hour so I figured that it would be pretty safe.

As I was passing through the area, I found Hallie, sitting there eating something.  Then, crossing the food court I found Elaine.  I tell ya, it’s getting more crowded all the time.

As I was passing Hallmark, I nearly bumped into the group of girls that saw me earlier.  I mean, I literally could have reached out and touched one of them!

I hurried past and quickly darted into JC Penney’s.

Once there, one of the helpful store clerks asked if I needed assistance finding anything.  I let her know that I was hiding and that there were young adults trying to find me, and she suggested that I hide in Kirkland’s.  I couldn’t figure out where that was, but after wandering around the whole store, and commenting on how Christmas was pushed to the back there as well, I headed out.

Did you see how the bell ringers in the mall all have kids ringing the bells?

I did not see anyone else on my way over to Hallmark—and that was a good thing too!  I made my way over to Hallmark, not thinking that it was a good place at all, and believing that I was sure to be spotted there.

However, I was impressed!

Having long aisles and lots of people clogged at the front made it a great place to hide out.  One lady kept playing talking birthday cards, which was funny.  They agreed with Dicks, and thought it sounded like a fun idea.

After Hallmark, I made my way over to Dicks (at the 30 minute mark), and the lady in there, near the front of the store, thought I should try Macy’s.  So, after making my way around that store, I decided to venture out¹ to go to Macys when it happened!

I WAS SPOTTED!

I saw Jana and the girls that she was with, so I quickly dove behind some calendars long enough to hope that I had eluded them before heading back into Dicks.  My pulse was racing as I thought through whether I should leave and when.

This was the first time that I started to wonder what the rules to the game were.  I mean, if I was spotted, should I just give myself up?  Should they tag me?  When was the game over with?

I mean, up until this day, I wasn’t sure what would happen if I was caught in the first fifteen minutes.  That wouldn’t be that much fun, I didn’t think².

When I thought the coast was clear, I left Dicks determined to make it to Macy’s.

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1. With my 10+ lbs. bag of extension cords and batteries [↩]
2. This was before I knew there were multiple people in the game, and that we just wandered around as people tried to find us. [↩]

I made my way over to Macy’s, and found that this was the place where I got the least amount of eye contact or people asking if they could help.

Of course, every time someone asked me if they could help me find something, I responded with “I’m trying not to be found, not trying to find!”  This probably made me the strangest person at the mall.

I stuck to my usual tactic of avoiding the main walkway and going through the outside edges.  I can’t believe that men’s suits are that expensive!

What I found in Macy’s was that there was a lot of nice stuff, and it’s a huge store, but some things are in the strangest places.  I found it very weird that you have to endure the onslaught of feminine undergarments to get to the children’s clothing section—because I guess they don’t think guys ever buy clothing for kids or something.

It was in this section that I saw a couple of young ladies that could have been with our group, and I was about to ask them the question of where to hide, when I thought “this isn’t a very safe place to hide if there are already young adults here.  So I headed across the section to the very back of the store, and I was surprised by what I found.

Tucked away, in a corner of the store, was a Christmas section with ornaments, trees and the like and a woman there that thought that this should have been in the front of the store—as it represented the true meaning of the season.

I couldn’t agree with her more!

She was the only worker there that actually talked with me and made eye-contact, and as I left, I felt encouraged.

Every time I cross the food court in the mall I’m nervous.  There’s no where to hide, and even the cover of strangers¹ I feel like anyone could see me and I wouldn’t be able to spot them.

I also start to think that this is the perfect place to be if I were the one looking.  I mean, we tell our kids when they get lost to just stand still and someone will find them.

Anyway, I finally make it to Sears, on the other side of the mall, and the three ladies working the first counter I come to didn’t have very many helpful suggestions at all (though they thought the idea was fun).

• One lady suggested the bathroom thing—already a no-go².
• Another suggested the Hallmark store (which I had my doubts about).
• The last suggested Dick’s Sporting Goods—which I thought was a good call.

I went to pick up some batteries for my children’s small Christmas tree in their room (still lugging 10 pounds of extension cords from Target) and headed around Sears.

Did you know that Sears has an Optical/Photo department tucked in the back?  I thought this would be a great place to hide—but the people there waiting for pictures gave me strange looks.

As I’m leaving Sears I bump into Al, and ask if he’s playing the game.  He asks if I’m playing.  It’s then I realize that it’s not just me in the game.  He told me that if they spotted him, he’d send them the other direction.

I guess this is a better plan than simply going along together.

1. Some of them make way for me, as I’m following behind and I wish they wouldn’t! [↩]
2. Pun intended [↩]

I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but this is a great video that brings out the season.

Flash Mob Surprises Everyone by Singing Hallelujah in the Food Court

So, the day of the event came, and my wife and I had been going around our house putting up Christmas lights.  We found that we needed more extension cords, so I decided that I’d enter the mall at Target.

It was there that I came up with an idea.

I decided that I would approach people and ask them where they’d hide, and if they told me a place, I’d check it out.

Target was by far the friendliest store when it came to this question.  Most of the people that I asked were also young adults, and there seemed to be an energy around this place.

A male worker that I walked down an aisle from the toy department to the front didn’t have a good idea of where to hide.  He noted that not only was this a busy day for toy purchases, but that he would avoid JC Penney because everyone would think to check the second floor.

When I went to cash out, I asked a few of his friends near the front.  They suggested Sears¹ as well as Radio Shack.

When I left Target was the first I felt “hunted.”  I think it was because my main strategy in traversing the halls was to find a group of people and walk with them.  However, when you leave Target, everyone’s basically coming the other way!

Radio Shack wasn’t that good of a place to hide—there was only one aisle, there wasn’t much that was interesting to look at (unless you like connectors) and so I quickly went into Sears.

1. No one goes to Sears, one cashier said. [↩]

Do you and I have the proper view of God’s holiness?  Do we desire it?

Kevin Deyoung makes a crushing indictment of today’s Christians—read along:

I have a growing concern that younger evangelicals do not take seriously the Bible’s call to personal holiness. We are too at peace with worldliness in our homes, too at ease with sin in our lives, too content with spiritual immaturity in our churches.

Read more at The Hole in Our Holiness

That’s the question that’s been on my mind the past few weeks in preparation for what would happen today.

You see, the difficulty is not only in knowing good hiding places, but also in thinking like the people looking for you (where would they look for me?) as well as knowing how to keep from being spotted.

(more…)

A fellow Pastor in the state sent this toolbar link, and I’ve given it a try.  So far, I like what I’ve seen, so you may want to try it yourself:

The Reclaiming the Mind Ministries theological toolbar for Explorer,
Safari, and Firefox, just got better. And it is still FREE!!

Download today http://reclaimingthemind.ourtoolbar.com/

New Features:

• New blogsites in the "Daily Theo Reader" including Ben Witherington,
  Scot Mcknight, Pyromaniacs, and a blog of the month.
• We have pulled together the best Christian news venues and included
  them in the toolbar.
• Daily Bible verse and a through the Bible in a year from Bible
  Gateway.
• New Podcasts including White Horse Inn and Stand to Reason.

Much more…

Still includes:

• Best blogs on the Christian net.
• Recommended websites for study and devotion.
• Our favorite Podcasts for instant access.

I was thinking today and then I stumbled across a blog that had “How to find a church” and it got me to thinking about how to be a committed church member. I have taken some liberties with a comment on that blog by “Frank Turk“, and have turned it into “How to be a committed church member” enjoy then pray how you can apply the points to your own life (I know it was sobering to me):

How to be a committed church member:

1. Be a prayer warrior: Praying for your pastor, church leadership, fellow members, evangelism & discipleship locally, and missionaries nationally and internationally.
2. Be serious. This is not a game, it’s not like being a member of a social club. Be serious about being in fellowship with other believers.
3. Be active. Don’t passively come taking the advantages of membership while neglecting being a part of the church. In that you’ve joined this church, you need to be doing something so that you will actually meet the people of this church.
4. Expect that this church will have its flaws along with the normal ebb and flow of Christian living. On one end of the spectrum is New Jerusalem (rated: 100 holy points); on the other is Sodom (rated: 0 holy points). Our church will be rated most days between 45 and 55, with daily gusts up to 60 and doldrums down to 35. Given that on most days you yourself are probably a 35, that should be your basis for comparison.
   1. Seriously: are you declaring, “I will not intentionally harm this church?”
   2. Seriously: are you declaring, “I will humbly work to serve this church?”
   3. Seriously: can you say, “I can live with the fact that I am not in charge of this church?”
5. You must make friends in the church, thus are you intentionally: meeting the people and learning to love them and be loved because we are committed to Christ’s church and His will for those who believe?