Surprised
Weekly Update #223 4/28/2024 to 5/4/2024
Be careful with judgment because sometimes people will surprise you when you least expect it. Before I explain more though, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
Did you happen to catch Josh Gates or his crew in Seymour recently? They were recently here filming for a future episode of Expedition Unknown. I know several area residents had a chance to interact with them during their time here and walked away with some fun stories and probably a picture or two as well. I am sure, when the time comes, the community will be a buzz with the airing of the episode, but until then, we can only imagine what they found about the Reno Gang. Thank you to Josh and crew for the kind words spoken about our community. It is always nice to get a visitor's perspective of what they see when they are here.
BINGO! Well, really it was Tree Bingo to celebrate Arbor Day. This past week, as we wrapped up the month of April, we had a good time coming together and giving away some trees. Around 30 people joined us as we learned about different trees from around the globe, and Chad Keithley and myself tried our best to pronounce some of the names such as the Kauri from New Zealand or the Blue Quandong from India. Hopefully, everyone had a good time, and I have heard of some notes for 2025s Arbor Day event being jotted down. Thank you to everyone who worked to make this year’s event happen and to everyone who came out and had a good time playing Tree Bingo with us. Last but not least, one last KAPOK!
This week, I spent some time with Planning and Zoning going over various issues from around the town. I also got to walk through during a plumbing inspection on a new home. We touched base on several sub divisions in the area with homes currently under construction. All in all, it was a good chance to be updated on current projects, both in city limits and the two mile fringe. Thanks, JG, for the more indepth updates.
Going into the most recent pastor chat I asked the participants to think about hate and love and switched it up to hate and anger during the meeting. As I expected them to do, they touched on many pieces of scripture during the conversation that I will loop back to and read again over the next few days. I have to be honest when I tell you that I didn’t ask them to be prepared for this topic so I could help you understand it. I know that I am not good at spreading the gospel nor have I ever been. I have always been of the belief that I have my faith and I hope you do as well. One of the things that caught my attention was that love is mentioned about three and a half more times than hate in the Bible.
Back to the opening statement though, I had judged someone to be anti change, not taking into consideration their past and how they had changed themselves over time - how they had come so far from where they were. Yes, we as humans fear change. It is in our nature to be comfortable with what we know, but that isn’t always what is best for us. I encourage you to join me this week and take time to see what you could change to make yourself better moving forward. I will leave you with a quote from Christine Caine about growth this week, "A commitment to growth is a commitment to risk, courage, faith, strength, hope, and a willingness to make mistakes, get back up and try again."