I spit out like a sewer hole, yet still receive Your kiss

If you keep up with me on Facebook you know that my 11-year-old son and I are huuuuuuuge fans of The Who. In fact, Bill recently drew this awesome pic of himself as an homage to the cover of the Who by Numbers album. Anyway, when we drive around town, just the two of us, we play every Who album we own on a systematic rotation for our in-car listening pleasure. 

And as I remarked earlier, hearing the songs repeatedly causes me to give them more than the passing thought I usually give to classic rock songs – the arrangements, the words and their possible meanings... these songs I've heard a thousand or more times... I may already even THINK I know what they mean, but... There's always some new flower of knowing that might bloom in this loamy brain of mine.

For instance, Pete’s hard rock rant, Who Are You... I’ve heard this song a GAZILLION times…  but I JUST realized that it’s a song that ANSWERS ITS OWN QUESTION!! Go ahead, click here and listen to it again… and listen to the WHOLE THING. In the first two verses, you’ll hear Roger Daltrey pretty much spitting out this tale of a night in the life of an angry, lost man….

I woke up in a Soho doorway

A policeman knew my name

He said "You can go sleep at home tonight

If you can get up and walk away"

I staggered back to the underground

And the breeze blew back my hair

I remember throwin' punches around

And preachin' from my chair

followed by the completely singable chorus which asks the song’s primary question:

Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

'Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

Then our angry, lost man goes home and takes a moment to reflect…

I took the tube back out of town

Back to the Rollin' Pin

I felt a little like a dying clown

With a streak of Rin Tin Tin

I stretched back and I hiccupped

And looked back on my busy day

Eleven hours in the Tin Pan

God, there's got to be another way

and asks himself again: 

Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

'Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

First of all, what a great description of a drunken, raging night! I should know – I’ve had one or two…(not lately of course!) I mean, can’t you just see lanky late-seventies Pete going through this ordeal in lurid, dimly-lit London locales. (SO MUCH ALLITERATION!!!) And knowing that these lines refer to a specific night in Pete Townsend’s life makes me feel like I have important esoteric knowledge. 

There’s a long blow-by-blow recount in Dave Marsh’s book, Before I Get Old; I’ll try to condense it here: So it’s the late seventies and punk rock is raging against the bloated excess of mainstream rock music machine and Pete and the boys are feeling the burn of it…  even though The Who may actually have invented punk rock with all their rebellion and instrument smashing, and telling the whole of the older generation to “f-f-f-fade away,” they took punk rock’s raging personally. 

Anyhoo, one night after a long day of business meetings – one of which involved the transfer of a sizable check, Pete goes into a pub and is none too sober when he spots a couple of actual Sex Pistols. He then rants and raves at them about the state of rock and roll – the stuff that’s bothering him about the whole life he’s living.

Actual Sex Pistols

But these guys, they love Pete and the Who and they tell him so. But he’s not having it. He knows he embodies a lot of what they think is wrong with the music business. Then he leaves and falls asleep slumped down in a doorway until a policeman wakes him up BY NAME and sends him home to his wife (aka - The Rollin’ Pin). 

So in the these verses he’s basically questioning the his own identity: “WHO ARE YOU??” he asks himself. “Everyone thinks I’m awesome, but aren’t I just a hack? Here’s the check to prove it!” and “The policeman knows my name, but do I know my own self?”

These are the familiar verses, but it’s the third verse that has just now sunk in. I was thinking how nice it sounded. I posted the lines on Facebook, because I love using song lyrics as status updates. Makes me feel all poetic, you know – without having to actually write anything. Anyway, it goes like this:

I know there's a place you walked

Where love falls from the trees

My heart is like a broken cup

I only feel right on my knees

I spit out like a sewer hole

Yet still receive your kiss

How can I measure up to anyone now

After such a love as this?

This is so lovely I made it a meme! PLUS
the background is actually Myrtle Beach!

And this cool guy I knew in college, Artie Sparrow (That’s his real name! Isn’t it lovely?), left this comment: “Fun fact: that lyric is about Myrtle Beach.” Of course it is. At first I thought Artie was joking because… well, you know… Myrtle Beach? The Redneck Riviera? But then I remembered that there is a Meher Baba center at Myrtle Beach, and Pete Townshend loves him some Meher Baba, and his bio Who I Am explains that this refers to a visit there.*

MB is his GURU... although I’m not sure what that means. I honestly can’t say I would equate Meher Baba with the Divine – but Pete does. So… when Pete says, “There’s got to be another way,” in verse 2, and then moves on to the beautiful, meaningful ponder that is verse 3 – that what he means, it is the love of the Divine that defines us – not whether we’ve invented punk rock, whether we’re are-nows or has-beens… (Jew or Greek, man or woman, slave or free…**) Who are you? Who am I? Who is GOD? Who does God say I am? If we ask these last two questions, we will know the answers to the first two questions.

It’s just like when Pete says in the gorgeous song Bargain – “I sit lookin’ ‘round, I look at my face in the mirror.*** I know I’m worth nothing without you. And like one and one don’t make two, one and one make one. And I’m lookin’ for that free ride to me - I’m looking for You!” (creative capitalization mine!)

Dang it! Fries are delicious!

And Pete wrote this one several years before he struggled with these issues in Who Are You. Which goes to show, that we KNOW things to be true, but that doesn’t mean we don’t struggle with opposing FEELINGS. I’m pretty sure I don’t have to tell you this. Like when you KNOW that finishing off your kid’s fries after you’ve had your own just might not be the best thing for you, but you really have to struggle with the truth of it because dang it FRIES ARE DELICIOUS!! Heck, even St. Paul struggled with the difference between knowing and feeling! Check out Romans 8:21-25!

Of course matters of identity are a bit more serious than consuming mass quantities of fries… But we see from the letters of Paul that his recipients need to be repeatedly reminded of the fundamental sweetness and glory of the gospel – that is, that God loves people so much He sent his own Son to save them.**** And that’s WHO WE ARE. People God loves and deems worth saving.

*I can talk more about this if you really want to know, but this post is already so long…!!

** Galations 3:28

***When we come to this line from Bargain in the car Bill and I both gaze wistfully into the rear view mirror. It cracks us up every time. If you want to read more of my crazy reflections about this song, you can read this post.

****John 3:16, of course!

Father Dark, a book review

Men in kilts... yes, please!

Occasionally I do book reviews. I’m not great at it, but I do love to read, and I do love to opine. But I’m not going to lie to you, sometimes the books are just crap. And… more often, the books are really good. But, honestly, even if a book is good, even if I’m reading it with relish, most times I’d just rather be reading what I really love.

Now I have in no way been shy about my “literature” preferences. And I use quote marks because… well, I’m not sure that a lot of what I read could be called literature… For your reference, you can go here where I’ve confessed to a fascination with time travel/men in kilts and that genre of “literature” (again with the quotes!) and here where I reveal that I am a sucker for vampires. 

I have no idea why I love this stuff – it just pulls me in and doesn’t let go. And there are well-written examples as well as (often) poorly edited, self-published drivel, which I read nonetheless. For a fix, doncha know.

Wings of Desire
meets...

And all this is to say, I recently had the fabulous experience of plowing through, inhaling, devouring a review book without once having that “when will this be over so I can read some fantasy?” feeling. Because … well, the review book, Father Dark by Stephen L. Case, plunged my imagination deep into a darkly humorous – yet touching – urban fantasy that turned all my knobs just the right way. To eleven.

See, it’s an engaging, well-written yarn about an angel who is assigned a job in which he takes on the persona of an Episcopal priest in an inner city church… and then he proceeds to… well, let’s just say he Takes Care of Business. It’s like … Wings of Desire meets… I don’t know, something with vengeance and mauling… and priests. It’s awesome.

And, really, that about sums it up: Angels. Priests. Vengeance. Mauling. Oh – and a big reveal that will make your heart sing.

In Which You, Me and Pascal Drink Some Beers

This is us talking the meaning of life over brews...

Let's imagine that this, along with my last two posts, is us at my house, staying up super late, having a long conversation over beers... Of course it would be better if you were actually here to provide the other side of the conversation, and that can certainly be arranged... but until then, we'll just have to accept things as they are... 

...except I'll be wearing this.

With our first brew, we pondered the mystery of why some people "get" Christianity, and I postulated that maybe you kinda hafta WANT to get it. But then we had another beer, talked some more, and I kept thinking of different examples of people who did NOT want to get it, but did. Because God's a wild card – sometimes He does that shocky paddle thing rescue workers on TV do on somebody's cold, stony, unwilling heart. Now let's finish off the six-pack...

___________________

So God can, and does, on occasion, grab people who don't want to be grabbed... BUT in general, it seems illogical to me for a person to go around saying, as Homer Simpson does, "Don't say Jesus!"... but then wonder why He's not talking to them. But people do this. I've done this. And this morning in the shower, I realized that I wish I had asked my dearly missed friend, "Why is it so important to you that Christianity not be true?" 

And, well, it might not be right, but I have to wonder if it was because of her husband, who was a firm atheist. That is, maybe it was important to her that a belief system that condemned her husband NOT be true. And I have to say I totally get this.

The "shocky paddle thing"

It is a sticking point for many people, including me. Except... if the gospel is true, it's true whether I believe it or not. I mean, just because I don't want it to be true doesn't make it less true.

And this all sounds like I am convinced that everyone who doesn't believe as I do is going to hell.... but the truth is, I just don't know. Many Christians actually hold a universal view of salvation – that Jesus' death covered the sins of EVERYONE whether they believe or not.  And I LOVE this idea.... But the side of my mind that has been schooled in a BIBLE church thinks that Biblical support is stronger for salvation for those who believe. 

There are so many passages in the Bible that support this.* Jesus himself says that the work of the Christian is to believe in Him**... Which, when it comes to WORK, seems kinda painless... When you compare it to the level of perfection required to actually save one's own soul. If that were even possible.

When love comes to town
I'm gonna ride that boar...

Thing is, though... what God is thinking and doing and planning ... We're just looking in the mirror dimly right now, as our buddy Paul has said. We only have a partial picture, and that picture includes the Bible's revelation of God sending His Son to save us. So why not get on board with what we DO know? (Haha - I'm typing this on my iPad which is super difficult, and I typed "boar" instead of board... then I got a brief mental picture of myself riding a wild boar with huge-ass tusks – just hanging on for dear life!)

For all I know God could have some kinda plan for everybody else, but, again, I have been given the privilege to hear about his love and saving grace through Jesus, so it behooves me to grab hold of it. Most of my knowledge of God when I first grabbed on was purely theoretical, and while it is purely theoretical, it is easy to weigh it in your mind, like - these things that are said about God are lovely, these these things that are said are puzzling, and these things just seem down right unfair...

Blaise Pascal bet on God
and so do I.

But at that time, I was so desperate that the fairness or unfairness of God's grace was not even an issue. I just needed relief from my own self and soul sickness, and that's what He's selling, my friends. Not always immediately or even perceptibly at first, but ultimately and eternally. (Was that redundant?) Or rather He's giving it away. 

Once my knowledge of God broke out of the purely theoretical and into the experiential, well... I experienced a God who was so completely GOOD... And loving and merciful and kind and slow to anger and all the things the Bible says he is... That I have pretty much no choice but to trust Him with my soul and the souls of the world. 

Bring out your dead!

Have you heard of Pascal's wager? Well, French philosopher Pascal said people should live as though there is a God... because what we would lose if we don't and there is, is way more than what we would lose if we do and there isn't. And I have no intention of taking this risky bet with your soul. That's why I'm all up in your metaphorical face telling you about Jesus. I mean, sure God could be saving everybody willy-nilly, I would LOVE that... but that isn't the light that I have. I have to go with the revelation I've been given. 

So... Maybe God has plans I don't know about and, again, I would LOVE that! But I don't know about them, so I'm going to make sure you have all the info you need to grab ahold of His salvation.

Dig this simplistic but handy illustration: Say the whole world has the plague. ("Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!") Some people feel its effects and others don't. You don't, but someone tells you, "You have the plague, here's a remedy." Would you say, "No thanks.  I'm going to see whether I become symptomatic. Plus, I'm not taking that pill unless everybody in the world gets one. In fact, I'm not taking it unless everyone in the world gets well whether they take it or not!" 

Jesus, my drug of choice.

Well, maybe if you weren't feeling the effects of the plague, you could sit around and contemplate whether you're sick or not, and the fairness of everything... but if you were at death's door, you might grab that pill and gulp it down like a dying man... because you are. Dying. And then you could open up a clinic and a mail-order service and a website to help spread the remedy to other people throughout the world. Like on an airplane when they tell the adults to put on their gas mask first, then help the kids. 

Maybe they can get well another way, but what if they can't? And maybe you could argue that no one actually HAS the plague. But what if they do? That's why I'm always nattering on about Jesus and all. I know it's super annoying, but ... what if people really need it?**

AND what if the pill has great side effects like... i don't know – love, joy, peace and the knowledge and Presence of the Everlasting God?*** Then even if they didn't NEED it, it would still be a great high... Can I get an AMEN?

Anyway, I guess I should stop talking now. I'm going to say this is the last installment of this diatribe... but why limit myself? We can certainly make a beer run.****



*John 3:16, John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Romans 10:9, etc.

**John 6:29

***also maybe some trouble (John 16:33), but God is with you! It's like one of those drugs on a TV commercial where they list all the side effects, but if you're desperate enough with your disease you ask you doctor about the drug anyway because relief from your disease trumps everything!

****with a sober driver, of course....!

Postulation Incomplete

Top to bottom:
Saul/Paul
C.S. Lewis
Josh McDowell
Lee Strobel

So... When I last wrote, I postulated that maybe a person has to be open to the possibility that Jesus just might be the answer to actually gain access to the hidden, yet completely wide open mysteries of the gospel. Well, I did say that this might not be the case for everyone... and the more I thought about it, the more actual cases came to my mind of the opposite happening.

The most glaring example, of course, is St. Paul himself, who as “Saul of Tarsus” spent a few years going around harassing, arresting and just generally making life hell for Christ's followers. Until one fateful day when he was on his way to do some damage to Christians in Damascus… See, Jesus Himself knocked him to his knees, saying, in the vernacular, "What the hey, dude? Why you gotta be such a hater?" And that was all she wrote for Saul... He was Paul after that... Follower of Christ, planter of churches, writer of letters that go a long way in explaining the hope of our glory in Christ. 

My point is that Paul was in no way open to the notion that Jesus was the Christ and that the Kingdom was at hand, but God somehow forced him to "get it." Why? I don't know. God did say that he had a job for him to do... Why him? Maybe he had some unique mix of talents and temperament that made him perfect for the job? He knew the Scriptures, could make arguments like the lawyer he was and was a real go-getter who didn't do things half way. Of course, God could have chosen him for much different reasons - cos He's like that. He sees things we don't see, knows things we don't know. It would be just like the God I’m familiar with to have chosen Paul for his weaknesses! 

Then there was author C.S. Lewis, an academic and avid agnostic, if there is such a thing. I mean wouldn't that be a bit like yelling "I DON'T KNOW!!!"? Anyhoo, here’s a quote right from Lewis’ pen: "You must picture me alone in that room at Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England…”

And there’s author Josh McDowell: In college, when “Flanders” told him that the answer to the question was Jesus he said this: “Jesus Christ? … I’m fed up with religion. I’m fed up with church. I’m fed up with the Bible.” “Flanders” then challenged him to conduct some unrelentingly thorough research into the person and claims of Jesus Christ… which he did “mostly out of spite to prove them wrong.” And, though his research led him to believe the gospel, he was reluctant to take hold of it. He didn’t want to admit that he had been wrong, and he didn’t want to not have fun. Just like me. He doesn’t say what tipped him over the line, but he was, nonetheless, tipped. 

Michaelangelo's The Conversion of Saint Paul

And what about that guy Lee Strobel? He was an investigative reporter / legal editor at the Chicago Tribune, when his wife converted to Christianity. Our atheistic boy Lee pitched a big fit and set about using his mad reporting skillz to disprove the resurrection, and therefore the claims of Christ. Since I’m using him as an example, I’m betting you can guess how THAT turned out! 

The weird thing about all of these examples is that each of these guys became what you call a “Christian apologist.” That’s someone whose raison d’etre is to argue in favor of the validity of the gospel. Not, as you may suspect, someone who goes around apologizing for the crazy stuff Christians do, although we probably need some of those too…!

Shakespeare's lady 
who "doth protest
too much."

Maybe there’s something about being a tough nut to crack that makes a person want to crack other people’s nuts? Wait, that didn’t sound right… Maybe they're just so dang thankful that they have to spread it around... Maybe their thought processes were just so deliberate that they feel like they can lay it out for people. Or maybe they’re like, “If a blowhard like me can be converted, anyone can! So here goes…” Or maybe it’s just moving from atheist blowhard over to Christian blowhard?

Whatever the case, the fact remains that God took hold of these people who had the OPPOSITE of interest. Or maybe they, as Shakespeare would say of Hamlet's mama, “doth protest too much.” That is, they just couldn’t leave it alone – and like me, they made the “mistake” of engaging with the God of the universe… 

The guys in U2 know about God's mysterious ways...

And that was the open door God came in through to grab them. Because, as U2 reminds us, He "moves in mysterious ways." That is, He CAN do anything, and He does things all kinds of ways, and He has His reasons... which I think have something to do with making "the riches of his glory known." This quote comes from Romans 9, which basically says, "God is God. Don’t question it.”

Well, it doesn’t EXACTLY say that, but … it kinda does… which goes totally against my natural tendencies. I mean, I got all kindsa questions and wonderings going through my scattered brain… and a lot more to say about this. But this post is already all kinds of unwieldy, so I’m splitting it in two parts… maybe even three! Like when I have to cut Bill’s Minecraft videos in half to post them on Youtube… 

Anyway… stay tuned for more… because this is really just the intro...

Break the code of the whispering chimneys and traffic signs...

"Alexa, play Ballad of
a Thin Man by Bob Dylan."

Okay, so we have this new Amazon speaker thing you can talk to. It’s called an Echo, and you can tell it what songs to play, or that you want a weather report or a news briefing. It has its uses – I mean, I love having a speaker in the kitchen, but, well – it’s not as versatile as Siri, and it really has a hard time figuring out what the user is saying. Honestly, we might as well ALL be Scottish! 

Anyway, there are several ways to listen to tunes on this device – you can bluetooth it to your iPhone, or ask it to play something from iHeartRadio or a station from TuneIn. Or you can ask it to play something from your iTunes library, which in our case, is Tom’s iTune’s library – which is stunningly vast. You’d think with all this choice I’d be in heaven, but I often have a hard time deciding what to tell “Alexa” to play. If she could understand me, that is. 

Which brings us around to this: Now that I’ve been requesting songs from Tom’s library to play while I’m cooking, Bill has a new favorite song… Ballad of a Thin Man by Bob Dylan.

You can listen to it by clicking on the song title above, and you can read the lyrics here. Anyway, Bill’s favorite part goes as follows: Now you see this one-eyed midget / Shouting the word “NOW” / And you say, “For what reason?” / And he says, “How?” / And you say, “What does this mean?” / And he screams back, “You’re a cow / Give me some milk / Or else go home.”

He just loves that – it cracks him up every time. Then he sings the chorus out loud: “Because something is happening here / But you don’t know what it is / Do you, Mister Jones?”

It’s so funny and wonderful to watch him listen to that song and feel just like I did when I first heard it… like “Bob Dylan is hilarious!!” And I’ve heard that song a bunch of times but this is honestly the first time I really stopped to think about what it means.

It's a coloring page!
Click to download and print!

And while I can’t say for sure what goes on in the mind of a brilliant guy like Bob, here’s my best guess… I think it’s about a traditional guy in the sixties - a “suit” if you will… who sees all the counterculture going on around him and hears the associated music – specifically Bob’s far-out lyrics – and just can’t understand what it’s all about. The song is sort of a hipster anthem – it's someone in the in-crowd being snarky about those who aren’t. And I find it doubly hilarious that Bob would use an incomprehensible spew of words and images to tell the story of someone who doesn't understand something.

And though it’s a whole different thing, it reminds me of … well, of this friend I used to have… She's passed now and I miss her terribly, but when she was around, we spent hours on end talking about the validity of Christianity… and not by my choice! I mean, I love the topic, but arguing does me in. ‘Cos I want everybody to like me and be nice to me, see? Nonetheless, she LOVED getting into it and considered it time very well spent. 

Pharaoh – abs of steel, heart of stone.

She knew my conversion story – the one where I told God to leave me alone but He wouldn’t (you can read about it here), and she'd frequently protest the injustice – that it was so “easy” for me to “get it” but so opaque to her. And, honestly, this has has always puzzled me as well. In fact, there are places in the Bible where it says that God has deliberately hardened people’s hearts or kept them in the dark, and this confuses me. 

For instance... In what people call "the parable of the sower,” Jesus uses a cryptic story to say that some people won't pick up what He's laying down – just like Bob uses a blast of incomprehensible logorrhea* to say, "Mr. Jones will never understand me." The famous story explores what happens when a farmer plants seed in different types of soil. Jesus's disciples ask him what it means. and He says, 

“The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,  “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’” (Mark 4)

And then in 1 Corinthians, Paul says: “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” 

Flanders, what is
the meaning of life?

As a natural evangelist, these passages concern me. I mean, if this is how it is, how can anyone be saved? How was I saved? Is this the answer to the old “free will v. determination” debate? I mean, did I “get it” because I was predestined to do so?”

Well, much to my surprise, our preacher was able to help me work through the difficult passage above  in a recent sermon… for now anyway!! I say “to my surprise” because often I find that having something explained to me does not necessarily make it any less difficult to understand.

Anyway, if I understood the pastor's explanation correctly, people “get it” because they WANT to “get it.” And I don’t mean to say they talk themselves into it… more like, in order to understand or accept it, a person should be open and willing to entertain the notion that it might be true and important and worth pursuing for life. 

XTC, one of my fave bands

I recently saw an episode of The Simpsons where Homer asks Ned Flanders what the key to his happiness is, but before Ned can answer, Homer says forcefully, “and DON’T SAY JESUS!!” Which, in real life, is bit like the way the friend I mentioned earlier approached our conversations. 

She was intensely interested in auras and ghost sightings and stories of people who had died on the operating table and come back to life. But she eagerly soaked them up because she was eager to prove that Christianity was wrong... rather than to learn more about the God we worship. Whereas, in my case, I already accepted Christianity as the truth – my dilemma was that I just didn’t want to be involved with it in any deep way, but I knew that God wanted me to.

Preach it, Bob!

I remember once on the 4-hour drive to her house I heard a song by XTC called Rook, (listen to it here) in which the singer begs the rook/crow to reveal secret truths to him of “plans eternal.” I thought, “Why would you ask a black bird for eternal truths?” And I recognized that while my friend felt she was digging hard for the truth, there was a soft, sweet-smelling garden with a big sign over it that said "Truth" that she was refusing to dig – mostly, I think, because she wasn't thrilled about the other gardeners. And I know that our generation has a super relativistic idea of “truth,” but, well… what do you expect from a blog that says “Christian” at the top?!

I don’t know what this means for ME, the evangelist… because while it makes sense to me and echoes my experience, I know that not every person I meet is the same, and this may not apply to every single conversion (or non-conversion) story. It may be more of a general concept rather than specific to every person. I can’t possibly begin to analyze what’s going on with anyone… what their history has been, what their temperament is or their issues are, how many Christian a-holes they have met…

And rest assured, I’m not sitting around plotting your conversion… I'm more about doing what I would do anyway – that is, lavishing you with love and friendship... you know – getting your dirt all watered and fluffed and ready. I mean, I sow seeds wherever I go – just as a matter of speaking my mind… but as in the parable of the soils referenced above in Mark 4, seed that takes and grows needs good, rich, deep soil.




*Isn't that a great word? It means: excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness. (ie. word diarrhea!)

Erin Go Bragh! (repost from 3.18.12)

St. Patrick, Bishop 
of Ireland

Yesterday was Saint Patrick’s Day, and we sure did celebrate at our house. Now, I don’t know how much Irish blood runs in our veins, but for all intents and purposes for the last couple of days, we bled a vivid green - 100% Irish. In the same way that I am inexplicably fascinated by all things British, Bill has been irresistably drawn to Erin and her people. I think his fascination began when they built leprechaun traps in preschool.

Now, if there was such a thing as a patron fairy of little boys, it would be leprechauns - mischievous, greedy, silly, tricky, irreverent, and ... magical. And though no leprechaun has ever left Bill a stocking full of candy and a heap of Lego sets, he has declared that St. Patrick’s Day is his favorite holiday.

Bill digs the craic at an Irish pub

Typically on March 17th at our house, nothing much happens. Bill builds an elaborate trap to catch a leprechaun, using those chocolate candies wrapped in gold foil that look like coins or Lucky Charms as bait, and after he goes to bed, a six-foot-two “leprechaun” named Tom scatters it around and writes a mocking note in green crayon. This year, though, we branched out. 

Friday I took Bill to lunch at one of those fake Irish pubs they have... and since he had no idea that the U.S. even had those, he was out of his mind with joy. And yesterday, we went to the St. Paddy’s Day parade in Raleigh. I’ve always wanted to go, but never tried hard enough to get there. This year I had an excuse. Surprising Bill brings me such joy - it’s so easy, since at this age, he has fewer preconceived notions than we do. 

At the parade

Well, that’s not exactly true... If we say, “We’re going to such and such a place,” he’s likely to yell out, “NO! I DON’T WANT TO!” But only because he’s having fun where he is, not because he’s already made up his mind he wouldn’t like where we’re going. I guess what I mean is, he doesn’t know many things exist. I mean, he knew there were pubs in Ireland, but he didn’t know there were fake ones here. And he didn’t know that there was a St. Pat’s Day parade in Raleigh, so when we walked into it... imagine his surprise!

Let me tell you, he never disappoints in that area. At the pub he couldn’t stop hugging me – he practically sat in my lap, he was so excited and grateful, and at the parade, he stared with wide eyes and a wide open mouth at the pipers and dancers and ... dogs...? dressed in Lepre-finery.

Men in kilts!

All in all, it was a joyful celebration. I’ve never been to the Emerald Isle, but from photographs and movies, I can tell it’s lovely. And part of it belongs to Great Britain, which, again, I love... the accents are lyrical, the music begat bluegrass, the writers have been prolific and poetic. Even the food is not too bad, as British food goes. And then there’s Guinness.

The Irish are a pretty important ingredient in the melting pot we live in. It’s hard to believe they were ever the object of discrimination. “Now hiring. No Irish need apply.” Say what? I guess they never met Bono... who wouldn’t hire him?

I bet they'd hire Bono...

But I digress... I guess American celebrations of Patrick’s saint day have denigrated from the celebration of a freed slave who shared the gospel with his captors, to a celebration of Irish culture ... into, well... parties. With whiskey, green beer and Kiss Me I’m Irish buttons. If we let them. Yesterday in the morning, we said the St. Patrick prayer that starts with: “I bind unto myself today / The strong Name of the Trinity, / By invocation of the same, / The Three in One and One in Three.” And I’ve already told you what we did after... Yes, I made up my mind to claim the day to dote on my son... to shower him with gifts and sweet surprises. Much like God does for me. Yes, I have written about how God grows me through trials and testing, but it has also been my experience, that He likes to charm us with astonishing, often serendipitous, curveballs. 

Like the time I was embarrassed and feeling awkward in front of a friend, and I unexpectedly saw the actor Robin Williams. Like when I quit my job at a newspaper to move to Asheville, and suddenly the exact same job came open at the Asheville paper. Or like when I asked God to heal me of my crazy thinking about food, and He gave me a husband and child. Yes, God’s surprises are big and small. Lovely and amazing... like grace.

Dig the Big Picture, my friend...

Matthew Sweet, blooming
where's he's planted. 

I try to be forthcoming. Sure, I talk about all kindsa crazy stuff – music, movies, how my kid’s doing… whatever. I’m random, but I’m not cagey about how I love Jesus and how I’d love for you to meet Him. 

That said… well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I do tend to sort of skirt around some issues…  And it’s not that I don’t know about or think about these issues, it’s just that… they can be obstacles to some people, or divisive… and that’s not what I’m about. 

I try to focus on the MAIN THING, that is, introducing folks to Jesus… Because once they meet HIM, they can ask HIM those questions. After all, He’s the One who really knows the answers. Some people may act like they do, and they really HAVE gone to school to learn about it and all – the Bible, how it was written, language and translation issues, different points of view regarding certain problems, etc… But in my opinion, even these people really should be prefacing everything with the implication that, “From what I understand…” or “My interpretation of this is…” 

EXPECTO PATRONUM!!!

And while these folks do have a leg up on the every day joe like me of how to approach some of these tough questions, we really can study them ourselves, and… I can tell you firsthand, this is a stunning privilege, and one that I relish… even though I am often completely stumped. And I tell God so… often!

Of course, discussing the issues with God, well – I guess this could be one of those “slippery slopes,” people are always freaking out about – because the discussion can seem a little one-sided... seeing as how you can’t hear His side of it.* You could slide right down that greasy slope and fall smack dab into the jaws of the of “it means whatever I decide it means” trap.

But… we’re not completely without God’s guidance. See, I regard the Bible as His side of it. Not that that makes it any easier. In fact, it’s pretty dang confusing and hard to stomach sometimes… especially for a lousy sinner like me. According to the gospel of Matthew Sweet: “And then you’re ripped right out of the ground / Like a f*ckin’ root / No you simply cannot hide / From the ugly truth.” Yeah, it kinda lays all your crappiness out for you so there’s no where to run. 

A really big picture of The Big Picture

But the Bible… well, it also contains the counter-curse, if you will… the “Expecto Patronum!!”… Because it tells me the story of who God is – the One who made me, and who loves me… so much that he died for me. And that was while I was still a sinner, it says – although I’m not sure why it puts me being a sinner in the past tense… 

Which means I’ve got no stones to throw at anyone. And if I DID throw stones, what kind of picture would that paint of God for people who need Him? (That is, everyone!) I’ve been reading through Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, and, GOOCHER! He kinda sort of talks about this same thing! I think he’s talking about sticking to the big picture when he says, “We put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.” So that’s why I don’t directly address some of the issues people have. Not because I’m cagey or simple-minded, but… because the big picture is Jesus. And I wouldn’t want anyone to miss it.

Is that a ghost? or a bit
of underdone potato?

*True story: One time I was wrestling with a thorny question, and I actually felt like God was “telling” me (not out loud, of course): “That’s one of those things you are allowed NOT to know.” Of course it may have been just an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato… as Ebenezer Scrooge speculated regarding the post mortem appearance of his BFF Jacob Marley.  But since this idea is wholly unlike my natural tendency to want to gnaw on things until I’ve reached a satisfactory answer, I felt like … maybe I didn’t come up with it on my own?