Did you ever play the game telephone as a child? It’s that game where you, and like, four people get in a line, and someone tells the person in front of them something, and they’re supposed to pass along the same information? Ideally, the same sentence that started the game makes it to the other end of the line.
It almost never happens.
Describing spirituality is tough to do for someone who isn’t particularly spiritual. Talking about how we see an intangible God working in a tangible world is quite a task at times. That’s why I’m very grateful for the 1988 classic movie starring ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, ‘They Live’
In boxing, there are a number of different punches people can throw. Uppercuts, crosses, jabs, and hooks to name some. And each punch serves a different purpose and plays a different role. For example, jabs are often used, not to knock your opponent out, but to set your opponent up. So you may jab, and jab, and jab in the same place three times in a row, all so you can set your opponent up for the right hook to catch them off guard. You see, 95% of the time, jabs aren’t effective by themselves. You use jabs to learn about your opponent, and to get them ready to be knocked out. But jabs almost never win the fight.
A lot of churches are fantastic at jabbing.
Have you ever watched a special on the Discovery Channel where they show a big cat prowling and stalking an animal the cat wants to eat? The camera follows the lion, tiger, cheetah, panther, etc as they slowly position themselves to strike the poor gazelle, antelope, zebra, etc. The cat usually has a look in their eye that is a mix of both excitement and focus. I can almost see the thought bubble above their head while they get in position: “IwantitIwantitIwantit…” it excitedly thinks to itself.
When I, as a young pastor walk into a room of older pastors and congregants, I feel a whole lot like a gazelle in front of a room full of lions. I can feel everyone looking at me, with a lot of focus and excitement, thinking about how much they “want it”.
Today, you are you. That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!
Dr Seuss
Earlier this year I had to interview with an office of my churches denomination in order to become an official Army chaplain. We came to an interesting point in the conversation that I doubt I will ever forget, because of just how perfectly (and bluntly) an observation about me was said. I was asked about my personality type (Meyers-Briggs; I’m an ENFP), to which I said there was really only one area I was uncertain of (the ‘P’). What follows is as close to a direct quote as I can recall:
“You’re definitely a ‘P’. You have a trailed of broken and missed deadlines behind you”.
He wasn’t being mean. He was just being honest. I had just never heard it put that way. And oh man, was he right.
The Dead Drop 