Reinvention II

What do you do when you realize you are at a cross road of your life and you know which way you need to go, but it's different than what you would have done before, different than your parents, different than (many of) your friends, different than the teaching of a hundred preachers you have listened to in 10,000 sermons...

...and you finally feel peace...

...you finally feel confident and more sure about your direction than in the hundreds of cross roads before it...

What do you do?

You take the first step and grasp God's hand like a child holding on to daddy's hand while taking those first steps, like you felt when mommy was pushing you on your bike for that first time...

You hang on and take the first step, looking forward, knowing that God is holding right back. You feel his warm, strong, secure hand and you know that he knows EXACTLY where he is going and that he will not let you go the wrong way. Just like your dad, expertly moving through a crowd holding your hand, leading you through what seems to you as utter chaos to the right place. As long as you hold on to his hand.

The questions from friends and family will come later, but you already know the answers...

Reinvention...

Full Circle

So, the other day I'm in the theater and "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" is starting on the screen. The big "Star Wars" comes on the screen and the text is moving up the screen setting up the story...and I get goose bumps...

But, not necessarily for the reason that George Lucas had in mind. You see, it was then that it hit me that 29 years ago, I watched the same opening for the first time as a 13-year-old. It was amazing then and it was amazing now...because sitting next to me was my 9-year-old son and my 16-year-old son. Wow...

As the movie went on and all of these "loose ends" kept on tying themselves up in my head (like, how Leah ended up in the middle of the Rebels and how Anakin ended up in a big, black suit) I kept thinking that the movie and my Star Wars experience has come full circle. I started it alone as a very young and overwhelmed teenager and ended up a 42-year-old father of two boys. The last experience was just as cool (or more so) than the first.

Full Circle.

Suddenly, skydiving doesn't seem so scary...

I'm almost 42 years old and I have done a lot of things in my life. Over the past few years I have even pressed the percieved bounds of my own inhibitions to try some pretty cool stuff. Besides whitewater rafting (which I didn't blink an eye at), I have (seemingly) shaken my fear of flying and heights are no longer the terrifying to me and I now love rollercoasters.

Now I have another life experience to contemplate as I grow older. Another thing that as I was doing it I wonder if I was going to die.

It seemed simple enough, my son and some friends wanted to go see "Three Days Grace" in concert at the Speed Street 600 Festival in downtown Charlotte. I like their music and thought it would be fun. It was, but I had no idea...

It wasn't until we actually arrived at the stage area and we started to make our way towards the stage that the first "pangs" of wonder started to appear in my head. The kids wanted to get close to the stage while the act before Three Days Grace was playing, so we started that way. We ended up about 15 feet away from the stage...CENTER stage. I really started to wonder when my son said to me "we may not be able to stay here". Huh?

What I saw all around me for the next 2 1/2 hours was hard to believe. I knew about this stuff, but never thought I would actually see it up close. I'm honestly shocked that no one was killed or severly injured. When you "surf" the easy part is getting up and getting passed around (I didn't DO this but saw a lot of it) it's when you fall...about 7 feet straight down, usually on your head.

When the band started playing and the crowd behind us started surging (actually, shoving) their way forward I thought we would be crushed. Luckily, between me and few other big guys we held them back long enough for them to loose interest in it.

I've been to a lot of concerts, but this is REALLY loud. It was still fun, very exhilarating and a bit scary at moments. In the end I was soaked in sweat and my ears were ringing for about two days. But I was glad that I went.

Contra!

Our friend, Greg, has told us for months about this thing called "Contra Dancing" and said that he needed to get us to one. Last night we relinquished. I'm glad we did.

OK, I was decidedly tentative about it. I kept asking him how it was different than square dancing (Bluegrass and country music come last on my list of music types right behind opera and ganster rap). However, I've never square danced, either, so I really had no reference point.

Minutes after we got there, they gave a quick workshop for all of first timers (there were more than a few). A few minutes later the band was playing and we were dancing. What a blast!

It was challenging, fun, playful, and social. It makes you dizzy and makes you sweat like crazy. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to explain what it is, you have to see it.

Best of all, it brought my wife and I close together for the evening, laughing and collapsing on each other at the end of each dance so that we wouldn't fall over (from being tired and dizzy).

Fun, fun, fun!

Lightbulb! (or "Church of Christ Glasses")

In cartoons, when someone has an idea they get a lightbulb over their head shining with inspiration or revelation. That happened to me Sunday morning during Bible class...I just wish I could say that it was inspiration that prompted the light.

In this case, it was revelation...

The teacher (which happens to be one of our evangelists) was leading us in a study of 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

"I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing–if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

He read the scripture and then asked for comments. A man behind me said something to the effect of; women were new at this. They had not been able to participate in worship and Paul was instructing them on how to conduct themselves as they did it. I added that Paul, throughout his ministry, was a major advocate of freeing women of spirtual bondage. I also added that women of that time could be married or sell themselves, those were their options. They were not allowed to even speak to men in public. Women, unlike men, did not have experience in public worship, Paul was telling women the same thing that men of that time already knew.

The teacher quickly, (and politely) told me he did not agree with me. He re-read the scripture and just stated that women were supposed to be silent in public worship. He even agreed that the Bible tells us that women prayed and prophesied in the name of the Lord, but that this passage tells them to be quiet in worship.

At this point, if I were a cartoon character, the lightbulb would have appeared over my head.

All of my life, I have used the Bible to prove what I have been taught at Church. Whenever I opened it up I corrupted God's message by reading it through "Church of Christ Glasses". If I could read a passage and prove something that someone had told me in Bible Class or at Church then it must be true! The teacher was just doing the same thing. I shouldn't be upset (even though I was a little) or mad, but try to help him by influencing him over time. I was were he was for a long time.

It comes from years of practice and has been honed to a perfectly tuned machine.