Monday, October 20, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Barns, and bigger barns
Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.
This was last week’s topic, and I guess it’s this week’s too.
We must die to the self which is focused on scarcity so that we may enter into life trusting in God’s abundance. This becomes the basis of real community: We each give what we have to one another.
This fruitful life is not the same as a successful life, though. Fruitfulness is the gift that is given us as a result of our trust in God’s presence. Fruitfulness is, in a way, the very opposite of success, of a life focused entirely on results and on our attempts to control the future according to our little views and our little survivals. – Henri Nouwen
At Vineyard in Urbana yesterday the lead guitarist played quietly behind the singers. At this church with hundreds of twenty-somethings, the worship band opened with “How Great Thou Art.” Tears flowed.
After a teaching on power and authority, the band came out again. The music swelled as seventy-five kids filled the front standing, dancing, waving their hands, jumping up and down. An African woman set herself up at the north end below the stage and waved beautiful large red and gold banners in time with the music.
Behind the singers the lead guitar was screaming. Like a banshee. I looked, and there was  the guitarist jumping up and down, fingers flying as fast as he could make them, his high notes stabbing through the sound. “Ah,” I said. “That’s my nephew Christian.” He is a mild-mannered musician who came from California with his family to join the Vineyard worship team. A year ago he sparked a local revival when he sang “Give Me Another Drink” at the Tuesday morning staff prayer meeting. (A drink of the Holy Spirit, of course.)
Christian’s family is bursting. Adrienne’s due date for their third kid is October 27. Son Elim voted for a boy – two boys to compete with their sister Emmarie – but a girl is on the way instead. Not that Elim is complaining.
These Sandels have one of those “very, very, very fine houses with two cats in the yard,” a white single story bungalow already full of life but about to be fuller still. Reminds us of our daughter in Austin with her own full-up life and now another baby boy Finn, who will be eight months old on November 3. Their house is plumb full too of their family … and bigger family.
What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?
And he said, This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
Neither Christian nor Andi, both of whom are the youngest in their family and now rich with babies, plan to build a bigger barn, or buy a bigger house. Both families have dedicated themselves to their neighborhoods, their churches, and above all to God. It inspires us to watch them from our vantage point, born 40-ish years before they were. Their children watch them too, from the other side of time, curious every day about what will happen next.
Christian and Andi are both artists, and so are their spouses. In high school Christian formed a band and called it “Look Up.” When he wasn’t playing one of the other instruments, he played the ukelele. Christian wrote a love song for Adrienne, his girlfriend then and wife today. I almost remember the lyrics; I know they were simple and beautiful.
The  band stayed still while he played his song solo on stage, gently singing to Adrienne and to the Lord. The melody was clear and sweet. In my mind I can hear it now.
Blessed are the poor in spirit;
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
 (Romans 4, Luke 1, Matthew 5, Luke 12)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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