Easter Breakfast is a pain, but I Love it

Easter morning. If your family was anything like mine growing up you'd wake up early to go to the Sonrise service at church. I always liked that service for whatever reason. I don't mind waking up early and they do the service outside at my church so that's pretty cool.

And another staple at my church has been the Pancake Breakfast done by the youth. The past two years I have made pancakes all morning, and this year was no different. The first two years I was a student so I was doing it as a fundraiser for events and whatnot. But now I'm a adult leader so I was just doing it because I like it and wanted to help maybe get some students to go on the houseboat trip this summer. But there were some times where I asked, "why?" Not just to myself, but to parents and members of the church.

The first "why?": Why did I sign up for this? It's 5:30, what am I doing? But then I thought about it, every year I have fun, and the rest of the year in the back of my head ask why we can't do it all the time. Waking up early? Not my favorite, but I'll do it. This is worth it. Just to see the kids cart around food, wash dishes, take the trash out; I wouldn't change it.

Another "why?": Why did you come? I get it you gave your donation, I can understand wanting your food. But do you need to walk back into the kitchen asking where the pancakes are when clearly we are running a bit behind? I mean sure people want their stuff, but none of us are trained cooks. Take a chill pill and remember that today isn't about your two damn pancakes, two damn sausage, and bowl of fruit. It's about Christ's resurrection, his sacrifice for you. He's risen! Just like these delicious buttermilk pancakes!

Another "why?": Why does pancake mix come in a 25 pound bag? It looked like cement mix. Hopefully Costco doesn't mess up and try to sell people giant bags of concrete as pancake mix. I don't know what to be more scared of, the fact that we used all 25 pounds, or that we almost finished off the other 25 pound bag. It was impressive to say the least. I didn't even think to count how many pancakes or how many people we fed today, there was maybe 3 hours I was coherent enough to even know what numbers are.

A final "why?": Why are these kids so awesome? This event was a fundraiser for the summer houseboat trip the jr high students are going on. Depending on how long they were there, they get a larger or smaller portion of funds to go to the cost of the trip. Some kids were there for an hour, some two, and one kid showed up at 6:30 and didn't leave until around 11 or 11:30. Depending on who you ask, he was helpful, or he wasn't, but that doesn't matter. He got things done when asked, granted he complained, but so did everyone. All the kids were ready to help wherever and it was awesome. Plating all the food, taking out the trash, whatever, it was great to see them helping out. They seemed to have fun, or at least tolerated it.

Some of you might be asking yourself, "why would he put himself through that?" or "why doesn't he check into a mental institute, surrounding himself with jr high kids all morning? That dude is cray cray." Well I'll be the first to tell you that I am a little crazy. But we all are in our own ways. I'm crazy about seeing Christ work in people; I'm crazy about watching these kids grow into the people God created them to be.

So when you ask, "Why did you wake up at 5:30 to go make pancakes with a bunch of snot nosed hooligans?" I'll just respond with a laugh and remind you that today wasn't about me, it wasn't about the 50 pounds of damn pancakes we made, it wasn't even about the kids, the money, or any of that stuff, it was a celebration of Christ's gift on the cross, his resurrection from the tomb and the wonderful gift of eternal life he gave us.


here's a pic by the wonderful Matt Fewel:

Actually, maybe some of today was the opportunity to use that pancake dispenser thing.