The Goings on and Work of Sam Mahlstadt

Last week, I wrapped up my college career; I can now say that I am a graduate of the University of Iowa. The actual graduating ceremony was not even close to the coolest thing that I was a part of last week, however. Graduation was eclipsed by the opportunity I had to serve communion to two of my closest friends. Although these two guys are un-churched and don’t live lives devoted to Christ, yet, they were more than willing to hear me preach and then to allow me to serve them communion. I truly feel that God was at work in their hearts the last couple weeks before we all went our separate ways following graduation, and being able to serve them communion on the eve of graduation was an honor and a blessing! While I was preparing the elements, I was explaining why we take communion and rehashing to them what the elements represented, and my roommate asked me a hilarious question. “Can we use Goldfish instead of bread for communion?” It was an awesome question because I was able to debunk all of the religious tradition surrounding the Eucharist, and explain that a relationship with Christ is about the heart, not what we use to represent his body that was broken for us. So we took communion, with some red wine and a few cheddar crackers. I believe it changed my life, and changed theirs as well.

P.S. today is my birthday!