I recently had the privilege of officiating the wedding for two dear friends in Dallas. It was a great event with a huge crowd in the Interfaith Peace Chapel. The reception was outdoors, and the food was catered by food trucks. I hated that I literally had to run from the wedding to the airport to be back in Atlanta to preach the next day.

I thought the idea of food trucks at a wedding reception was so clever that I've been trying to find an excuse to use them at a church event. Our people would love that, which is incredible if you think about it.

Where did this phenomenon come from? How did it take off? Why is it so popular? Is it a passing fad? These are the kinds of questions I try to ask as I ponder the future of a 2,000-year-old institution like the church. I think it also is how we should think when we ponder our lives and where they are going. What did we learn as kids that might suddenly have new value or relevance for what is next for us? What kinds of skills, interests, passions, hobbies, and talents do we have that might be adapted in entirely new ways? What opportunities are we missing by seeing things the way we always have seen them?

They say that when the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. Maybe the real trouble is missing all the amazing ways a hammer or nail might be used. I don't have time to list the thousands of uses for a hammer, but we need to practice thinking that way. We especially need to practice thinking that way about our own lives.

All of us have gifts that we don't use, or that we use only to make money. You are so much more than you dare to imagine. What passion of your life has left you frustrated because you haven't been able to use it? Treat it like a food truck: what are new, different and creative ways you might use it to enrich your life and the world?

Blessings,

Rev. Michael Piazza