There are emerging patterns that I am seeing that re enforce my feeling that times are changing in significant ways. Sometimes these things happen and it comes to nothing, sometimes these events/movements/ideas seem insignificant at the time, but with time are understood to be world changers. We will see.
Over the past several months my workspace has been at our kitchen table, at the laptop, with the TV on in the background. As those who know me, this is a troublesome set up. I admit it, I like people, more importantly, I like interaction with people. This monastic work situation does not suit me well. After a couple of hours of quiet I start looking for someone to talk to. Not on the phone, a real person with expressions and body language and those funny little nervous conversational twitches we all have. To talk and share ideas and disagree and laugh fuel my engine. Maggie the dog is not a viable alternative. So I watch CNN and FoxNews. These two channels are sort of the yin and yang of news TV. They don't agree at all. I flip between the two because it fascinates me how a singular event or concept can have such varying opinions. I enjoy FoxNews a little more and spent a little time reflecting why that was so. Am I closet republican? I always considered myself sort of apolitical. Then I realized that FoxNews is just hammering the leadership, and that is what appealed to me. On further reflection it dawned on me that while I don't want to be in charge, I really don't want anyone else in charge either. It makes my bride a little nuts, but it works for me. But this Tea Party deal is great fun to watch develop. I will tell you, neither one of the big political machines like the newcomer. I'm rooting for them. Our nation needs a good old-fashioned dust up. This political landscape is changing, it can only be good. Meanwhile I need the job to start to get me back in the groove.
On another front, I started a little group on Sunday mornings that will look at what God has done, what His methods are, and where all this seems to be going. This journey started about 6 or 7 years ago for me and I am now exporting the concept. At the core of this thought journey is the realization that "church" as we know it does not work. Oh, it will clunk along for a few more decades, but not much longer than that. Why? I think my son-in-law put it best, "we do not see the value in organized church for us or our family." You have to know this man to understand how foundationally shifting this will be. He and my daughter are what churches look for in their young families..conservative, sensible, dedicated, focused. They have taken a long hard look and discovered that "church" will have to happen relationally. Outside the walls. I decided that after this last meeting, it does no good to criticise or fuss about the "church"..it is dead already, it is now a museum from another time. The trick now is to try and help the younger families key in on what God is trying to do.. to help them redefine what "church" really is. Like a wind chime tinkling the first warnings of the tsunami that is on its way, so we must prepare for the new "church."
And finally, the last shift was personal. After our Sunday morning get together my eldest grandson and I drove to Panera for an early lunch. We were meeting all the rest of the folks in the other car. We talked about this and that..wherever the 7-year-old mind wandered. When we arrived, I scooped him up and slung him over my shoulder and headed toward the restaurant. Over my shoulder I heard him say, "Grandaddy, put me down, this is embarrassing." If words can strike deeper into your heart I'm not sure how. It was one of those moments that is at once sad, and proud. He was saying that this action, while fun and acceptable in the past, no longer fit into his image of himself. He had outgrown it. Internally I wanted to sit and reflect on the moment, to realize the significance of this moment. He was saying that he was not a little boy anymore, but someone who had a self-image that was more mature than I realized. So I had to readjust my mental image of him. I have to respect his image of himself and not my image of him. I'm proud of him and his parents, and I'm sad that this journey moved us to a different, more mature level.
Of course I still have a granddaughter, and two more grandsons who still like to ride on my shoulders and be swooped up into my arms. God is good, all the time. I'm hoping by the time the last one (whomever that might be) decides that this is embarrassing, my back and legs won't take the stress anyway. Years from now.
Godspeed, the shape of the journey is changing as we trudge along. Keep your eyes up and watch your step.
Don
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