Well, I took a little vacation these past couple of days. It was interesting. As you know, I live in a fairly touristy area of northwest Florida. We are within a short driving distance to Alabama and Georgia. So, we decided to go to Georgia for a couple of days and take in an amusement park that is about three hours from our house. I say with some regret that I am getting old, because the vertigo will just not go away after riding the rides. This visit to the amusement park only solidified my knowledge that I live in a Redneck haven. I commented to my wife that I thought the place we went was worse than where we live. The look on her face told me that this was indeed where we live.
My oldest daughter is getting to an age when she would rather ride bigger kid rides than the little kid rides with her younger sister. So that means I get to ride with her. We had a great time, but this was the first time I had been on real rides (with one minor exception) in many years. About a week before my wife and I were married, we went to a carnival in her hometown. We bought an armband so we could ride all the rides as many times as we wanted. Well, there were two problems with this plan. 1. We decided to eat chili dogs at the Dairy Queen before we went to ride on these rides. 2. While riding the second ride, a girl threw up on herself behind us. You know, it was one of those "octopus" type rides that turns and spins you in the other direction. Well, her vomit hit her on the way back around. I vowed I would never ride rides again and we went back to her house and laid very still till I could muster up the strength to drive to my apartment. Well, never say never. Now that I have children, I am learning the art of compromise with myself. I just wish the floor would stop spinning.
I think I am a little jaded, too. Who am I kidding? I am a lot jaded, but I guess I feel bad about it now. After we had ridden several rides, we ate lunch and went to see a patriotic song and dance show. I guess this was one of those calls for "singers who can move well" as opposed to "dancers who can sing" because the dancing was not all that good. And, well, the singing was not great either. I guess I am just a harsh critic. Somebody asked me last week if I went to such and such concert or hard seen a certain band in concert before, and they were surprised that I had not. I told them I just don't go to concerts much. And I think I stopped going because they were so expensive, and I was never really satisfied with what I got for my money. Well, I must admit that I had low expectations for this last little show I saw and said expectations were met. I will say that the young men in the show wore these tight stretchy pants, and I was afraid that one of my daughters would ask me about a certain mouse that needed to stay in the house. Thank God for small favors, as none of them asked. We are safe for a little while at least.
Please excuse the following rant. When did it become appropriate to hoot and catcall at a performer to show that we support them? I used to complain to my college students all the time that this was inappropriate behavior, especially in our daily chapel services. But I could not put my finger on where I heard people do this for the first time until yesterday. It was dancers. When I was a kid, my sister took dance lessons and she would have to perform quite a bit. And the dance instructor and her cohorts would "woo" them on to their best performance ever. I remember thinking they were on crack, not knowing what that was at the time, but sure that these women were on it. Probably, I just thought that's what "sinners" did. I was very judgmental. But can you blame me? They were dancers for crying out loud! I guess it is so much a part of our culture now that I seem to be a fuddy duddy when I don't hoot at someone. If you want me to hoot at you, you better be pretty darn good! I am getting into crazy talk now, so I will leave this wild rambling.
Monday marks 13 years of marriage for my wife and me. I never thought that I would be sitting here in Florida, married this long, with three beautiful, Methodist children. Whenever I think differently, I look at my children and remember God must love me. Even when I do not always like myself, God has been all too gracious to me. I think this is one of the reasons why grace is so important to me today. Without it, where would we be?
And they really are beautiful!
6 comments:
And here’s where I start getting really caddy.
Though I do not have the musical credentials that you have, I believe that we do share a similar passion for it as well as the kind of critical ear that just can’t put up with much under an eight, as far as singing on a scale from one to ten. I too have cringed while my wife stood and watched the “performers” at a theme park (she spent several years in show choir at Edmond High School) and, when I served in churches who regularly had congregants perform a “special” in the worship service, found that it was all I could do to force a pleasant smile onto my face as they “blessed us” with their “talent”. As a worship leader myself, I have struggled to understand whether it is my responsibility to put people on stage who are truly gifted in a particular area, or whether it is my responsibility to give people an opportunity to do the thing they love? ??? ??? I still have no idea. What I do know is, as a worship leader, it is much easier to distract people in worship, than to lead them, and I personally find many, many people to be distracting when they’re up on stage rather than having the kind of gift and anointing that leads people “to the throne”, if you will. Sorry to go off on my own tangent here, but this is one of my hot topics. Everywhere I go I meet people who “want to be in the worship band” and everywhere I go I meet people who (a) really just want to be rock stars, and/or (b) really aren’t all that helpful in creating an atmosphere that encourages people to worship.
As far as getting old…well…I’m sorry to hear that! : )
Congrats on the 13 years. Jamie and I also celebrate 13 years here in a couple of weeks.
My favorite is when a person gets up in church and says, "The Lord gave me this song..." When they begin to sing it, you realize why the Lord was so eager to get rid of it. Is that bad?
Haha. Eric, you’re officially a bad person. : )
Seriously though, what can you do when somebody plays the “God gave me this” card? The “God gave me a word” card cannot be trumped, and I’ve seen it abused too many times. I once heard a pastor say that God had given him a word that he should use the money, raised to upgrade the church nursery, to instead update his office. I kid you not.
As far as church solos go, I’m never quite sure what they’re for. Is the person singing it, worshiping on our behalf? Are they supposed to be sharing a message through song? And why do we clap afterwards? Doesn’t that automatically make it a performance rather than a message or act of worship? After all, we don’t clap after the sermon. I’m always a little uncomfortable with worship services that border on talent shows. And, obviously, I’m even more uncomfortable when the show has a lack of talent.
You both are worse than me, and that is bad. I actually get a sense of pleasure from really bad singing, especially in church. So, I can smile and nod and agree with them and enjoy it all on my own little personal level. However, when we believe we have a gift from God when clearly no gift has been given, then I have a problem. It is not meager talent that bothers me, but meager humility. I have heard some pretty bad singing that has moved me because of the heart-felt worship that came about as a result of pure motives. But I am leery of anyone who believes the Lord has called them to a ministry (and I heard this often at the college) but what they really wanted was for me to tell them that everything they were doing was exactly right. When God calls you, he somehow makes it so no one can hear your faults and thereby judge you based on "worldly" talents. The fact is this is ridiculous and I liked to call students on this all the time.
If someone comes in my office and says, "God told me so and so..." the conversation is over. What can you say to that? I knew one minister that said, "Yes, God told me you were going to come and say that. He wanted me to let you know that you were wrong." I think he had mixed results with that tactic.
:)
: ) Good tactic. I have a friend that often answers, “No He didn’t, because that’s completely contrary to what He’s been telling us.” I’ve never had the guts to go that far, but I often think it. Again, I see/hear people play that card all the time and it drives me crazy. It’s just such a dangerous place to go and seems pretty irresponsible. “Test the spirits”. There has to be room left for accountability, and I don’t see any in that statement.
Post a Comment