Life is full of beautiful sounds. Children laughing. Birds chirping. The crash of ocean waves on the shore. Snow falling in the forest (yes, it has a distinct sound).

And my current personal favorite, the tick… tick… tick.. tick. tickticktickticktick. tick. tick.. tick… tick… tick of hot water pipes in the wall at 3:17 AM. Although I used to find that sound incredibly annoying, especially when it woke me from my peaceful slumber, it was the most beautiful sound in the world last night.

Why? Because it meant we had heat in the house again.

During the cold snap the last few days, our heating pipes froze and we were without heat. So I spent a dozen hours or so over the past couple days using hair dryers, pulling back carpet, moving furniture, climbing around in freezing crawl spaces, and other assorted methods, all in an attempt to locate the frozen pipe and get the heat going again. Also, I was dreading that when it did start flowing, I might end up with a burst pipe.

And then, last night, at about 10:30 PM, while I was on the phone with a friend from Oregon, my wife ran in excitedly and said, “The walls are ticking! I heard the walls ticking!” We both ran to the wall and listened to the beautiful noise of the copper pipes heating up inside the wall. Last week, it was the most annoying sound in the world. Last night it was the most beautiful sound. And at 3:17 AM, I didn’t even mind being woken up it.

Funny how perspective changes everything…

Take curse words and coarse jokes, pointed questions about the accuracy of Scripture or the deity of Jesus, or even mindless chatter about Jersey Shore and sports statistics.

All these things used to annoy me. But now, just like the ticking pipes in my wall, they are beautiful sounds, because they tell me I’m hanging out with the right people, the kind of people Jesus hung out with… the people whom God loves.

In searching for pictures for the previous post, I found this picture, and thought it was hilarious, so I had to post it. Enjoy!

Is your church struggling, shrinking, or diminishing in size? Do you show up every week, wondering which family has finally tossed in the towel and switched to another church?

Maybe your church is holding steady, as far as the numbers go, but you feel like nothing is happening in the way of evangelism, missions, and outreach. You want to do something, but you’re not sure what?

I would love to talk. Send me an email: jmyers AT tillhecomes DOT org

What will we talk about? As you may or may not know, I am writing a book called Close Your Church for Good. You can read some of the excerpts by clicking the tab above. The book is focused on helping churches move out of their building and into the community.

Most of the suggestions are fairly extreme and require a willingness to take risks. Of course, few of them cost any money, so we’re not talking that kind of risk. Several of the suggestions in the book are ones I have already done in various ways at various times. But several of the ideas are only that: ideas. Though I’ve heard of other churches that are doing similar things, I have never done them personally.

It has been making me feel guilty that some of the things I am writing about I have never actually done. So my wife, genius that she is, suggested last night that I post on my blog if there are any churches out there that might want to discuss trying some of these things happening in their own church.

The ideas are free. I’m free. And you could set your church free.