Off to the races

We had an eventful time last Friday night. Sarah, the girls, and I were treated to a local raceway called Killkare in Xenia Ohio. Cindy Ater and her family took us to watch as Cindy's husband Dick competed in the Modified class of cars. He came in second in his grouping.

It was a half mile track of pavement where huge engined cars (in the modified class) drove in an oval to try and win points and prizes for the season. It was the last of the season and it was chilly and loud.

It was fun to be a part of a crowd and to be with people just to have some fun. Often I miss out on the joys of being a pastor because I get too caught up in the business of being a pastor. I miss ministry by trying to be a good minister. Fun can often be a part of the equation if we're looking for it though. Friday reminded me of that.

I was most fascinated by the Legends cars. They looked like miniature version of model 1943 ford coupes and were not much bigger than a golf cart. Some had snowmobile engines in them. They are single seat cars-one center seat in the middle and seem to be ideally suited to such a short track.

Another class we got to see was the compact car series-I loved seeing these having owned a Honda Civic that helped save my life. They sounded like bumble bees on steroids buzzing around the track and put on a big show. The winner of their race was a Honda Prelude beating out a couple of Chevy Berettas. I thought all of the Beretta's resided in small towns in WV like I'm from or in South Jersey-but they were there in force in this race class.

I wish I could come up with some significant metaphor like life is like racing-we go round and round and if we don't take care of ourselves our engines will blow and we'll have to retire to the junkyard in the sky. But I just don't have it in me.

I write this to say if you have a chance to go see live racing-go. It's REALLY entertaining and makes more sense in person. For those who offer the driving tip wisdom to NASCAR "Drive really fast and turn left every so often" I invite you to go see what it's like. Your opinion will change. Even at the grassroots level it's a really fun time and you can see competition and creativity at work.

Be good race fans and be sure and take care of your engines. I couldn't resist.

Shalom ya'll,
Dwight

The Shoe

Not the kind you wear. As in the Horseshoe as the Ohio State Buckeye Football stadium is known.

I was blessed to receive a ticket to the Ohio State USC football game this past Saturday. Thanks to Ron Montgomery. We sat on the 10 yard line about thirty rows up and had a great view of a pretty good game.

I frequently have mentioned it at church-but there's something about over a hundred thousand people cheering for a common goal. The attendance that day was 106,033 people-a new stadium record. The place was rocking the whole game until a disappointing finish when USC won on their last drive of the game.

I understand now the rabid nature of the Buckeye fan and how exciting it is to be a part of something much bigger than ourselves. It would be a dream come true to get that many people to be rabid about our faith in Jesus Christ. I've blogged about it before-but I am amazed at the similarities between a football game and the fan rituals and the life of a church. The big difference is we're worshiping a team and not the Living God.

There is the communal eating-in church it's Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ-the symbols of the Body and Blood-bread and wine. In football-it's the burger, the brats, the hotdog, the chips etc and beer, soda, wine, or liquor.

There's the gathering beforehand with people you're friends with to prepare for the worship service/game-tailgating-not unlike the fellowship hour at church before worship.

There's the praise band in the form of a marching band. In the case of baseball they even have an organ to play the songs.

There's the wearing of team colors and the cheerleaders (would that be like donning our Sunday best and the equivalent of our pastors and choir director leading the worship)?

The teams would be the little gods we make and worship-we certainly idolize them and value them more highly than other humans for their physical prowess and strength. We analyze their skills and measure them against one another and our own expectations-blaming them when something goes wrong and praising them when something goes well-not unlike humanity's tendencies with the Divine.

Like football fans Christians are called to celebrate-not a team but the Divine presence of the Holy Spirit.

Unlike God-our teams will let us down. Also unlike God-there are many teams to divide our loyalties. God desires for us to love God with our whole hearts, our whole minds, and all of our strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves-even if we wear different colors of skin, and even if we happen to call God by another name like Allah, or the God of Israel.

I was witness to one of the most impressive demonstrations of enthusiasm and unity in the form of a raucous Ohio State crowd in Columbus on Saturday. It is my hope that my role as cheerleader and coach will help inspire others to focus even a portion of their enthusiasm for football on the will to follow Jesus Christ.

For now I have to go-I have cheerleading practice.....

Shalom y'all,
Dwight

Tell me that funny story again

One of my seminary professors joked with me about life in a small town as we both had grown up in them. We joked about what there was to do on a Saturday night. Basically we said you'd sit on someone's front porch and talk. Eventually someone would say. "Hey say that thing you said last week that was so funny to me again." That was our equivalent of attending a comedy club. Entertaining one another with the funny stories we remembered.

I recently found an instance of humor related to telling the same story over again. My mom is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. It's taken her short term memory for now-and will eventually take the rest of her mind. About the time she moved up here for us to begin taking care of her (to Springfield OH) she re-connected with her sister. They hadn't spoken in years. I would sit sometimes and listen to mom's conversation on the phone with her sister and noticed that each time she would talk-she would mention similar stories-if not identical to the ones she'd shared before on the phone.

Her repetition of stories wasn't new to me-it is one of the first signals that she was beginning to experience dementia. I was a bit embarrassed by my aunt having to listen to the same stories over and over and wondered to myself how much she must love mom to be willing to sit through identical conversations that lasted often an hour or more.

Recently in speaking with my cousin Mike, my aunt's son, he shared with me that his mom too was suffering from dementia-and that her memory had gone too. So it made me laugh and smile as I understood that both women were sharing identical stories and memories with one another as though they were recounting them for the first time. Each time they spoke they were experiencing the joy of the other person's company anew. The conversations included a lot of laughter-big laughs on mom's side of things and I imagine on my aunt's as well.

Think of the ability to experience the newness and joy of a relationship over and over with no understanding of the ways in which relationships sometimes decline and become stale. So at least for the time being mom can experience joy over and over as she talks with her sister-and I can get some happiness in hearing her laugh with someone she loves.

What stories do you remember that make you smile? What's the funniest story you've ever heard? Let me know in the comments.

Peace,
Dwight