Why I Miss Kindegarten
I have a decently large library of audio files on my computer . . . works out well. I'd like to have more, but either way, it comes in handy when I'm making videos and stuff. The problem is that when I start my library going, you're never really sure what's going to play.
Interestingly enough, I have Mike Yaconelli's last public message, given here in Charlotte at the 2003. He died just a couple of weeks following that message. It started to play as I was busy running around DHQ on Tuesday.
He talked a lot about our expectations. He also mentioned an analogy from the classic book, "Everything I need to know, I learned in Kindegarten."
Kindergarteners can do ANYTHING. Just ask them. Can you draw? Yup. We can draw ANYTHING you want. Can you sing? Yup. If we don't know the words, we'll make 'em up. Can you play music? Yup. Can you dance? Yup. Can you act? Yup.
Ask a group of college students the same thing. Can you draw? Not really. I only draw cartoon faces. Can you sing? Oooh, no, I don't know many songs. Can you play music? Only the piano. Can you dance? No, I'm too clumsy. Can you act? Only stupid.
It continues downhill as you get older, aparently.
What happened?
Kindegarten was all about expectations. My Chrisitanity needs to be about expectation. To the point that we don't even know that we're expecting . . . what's the matter, what's happening? I dont' know. But God is doing something. I'm EXPECTING God to do something.
We've got God all figured out: in books, and CDs, and weblogs. But, the truth is we haven't even got a clue. He can't fit in a stinkin' book, or a song, or a posting.
So, I conclude that I have to be yet even more immature. To be yet even more like kindergarteners. To know that with God's help, I can do things for him that I'm not even aware can be done. Let me be child-like. Let me be naive when it comes to limitations. Don't let me be like Moses who, when God said, "I want you to go to Egypt," responded with, "but I'm not eloquent."
I never will be.
Grace.
2 comments:
The crazy thing about Yaconelli's last sermon was that it fit his life...he told the story of the little girl playing softball(or baseball) and how she ran with all "expectancy" and joy towards "her" goal! That was Mike man...how interesting and blessed an experience to be there sitting in the crowd listening to him days before he passed! (Yes, it was days...he spoke on Monday, he passed on Wednesday.)
God Bless...
I stumbled upon your website here quite by accident as I was looking for something else (specifically, information on the Recabites)in the Yahoo search engine and one of the matches in the search was one of your postings in which you had used the word I was looking for. Not realizing that I was going to be looking at somebody's personal online journal, I clicked on it. Once I saw what it was, I looked at a few of your postings. This one caught my eye and brought a passage to mind. You were talking in this posting about how the older we get, the more vain/self-concious/proud we get. What made me think of this passage was the part of your post where you were saying the older people won't dance for fear of looking clumsy or stupid. Well, check this out (and if you need some context, the "linen ephod" was basically an undergarment--David had stripped off his royal garments to make himself plain out of reverence and respect for the Lord as he came before Him):
2 Samuel 6:9-23
David was afraid of the LORD that day and said, "How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?" He was not willing to take the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household. Now King David was told, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God." So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets. As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD , she despised him in her heart. They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD . After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes. When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!" David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD , who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel-I will celebrate before the LORD . I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor." And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
King David grasped something here. Dude, he got it. I mean REALLY got it. And he demonstrated that with action by his unbridled, throw-caution-to-the-wind behavior. He accepted the mockery of a nay-sayer and found dignity in his own humility. And, if you'll notice, the end of that passage shows that it was the one doing the mocking that lost God's favor rather than the one who was making a righteous fool of himself in celebration of the Lord and His blessings. As we know, David was "a man after God's own heart." For you to grasp concepts David did speaks highly of you. If you ever feel so inclined as to drop me a line:
csr4242@yahoo.com
Otherwise, just know I liked your blog, and it made me meditate on some things. Good work. I think I'll have to visit your website again sometime.
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