A few days before 3.14.15 our son’s high school math teacher said, “Our class should have pizza pie to celebrate Pi Day. Any suggestions on how we could?” Our son raised his hand with an answer (maybe for the first time?). “My dad makes pizza!”
The afternoon before 3.14.15, our son invited us to deliver to school 9 large home-made pizzas at 10:42 a.m. While I was grateful he thought we made great pizza, I was sorry he didn’t fully comprehend the process (or he didn’t care). For our family of 3, pizzas on our Green Egg were fire-baked one at a time for 20 minutes. How were we to feed a classroom of hungry teenagers?
We had our own math problems to solve. We bought the ingredients for a variety of pizzas, cooked a ton of sauce, and set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. We prepped and cooked 3 ppph (pizza pies per hour). Ovens kept them warm until we wrapped them in towels for transportation through the school’s security at 10:42 a.m.
The appreciation of the students and teacher made it worth the effort. We learned a new math formula: X amount of teenagers divided by Y amount of pizza always equals zero (Xt/Yp=0). One friend proclaimed, “I want to eat at your house! Will you adopt me, too?”
Name the person in your life you would do anything for. Recall one thing you did for someone else that you won’t forget. How do you react to that memory? How do you give appreciation for the actions of others? What is a meaningful way for someone to show appreciation to you?
My two congregations are in the midst of the Bible study of the 7 Marks, Vital Congregations Initiative. Last week we discussed Intentional Authentic Evangelism. Your story is a good example for us, I think. Your son offered up what he enjoyed, what he liked, and your family decided to respond. You didn’t take the easy way out and call up a local pizza restaurant. No, you shopped, and chopped, and personally baked the pizzas and delivered them on time. It was a personal gift, a gift of love shared with the math students, and I’ll bet they still remember it. May we watch for opportunities to share that which feeds us, that which we know brings joy and healing and strength, the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Beautiful. Amen. Yes