Sunday, March 26, 2006

Overheard At Bedtime

momma: Here Hayes, put these on.

Hayes: (excited gasp) Are they new?

momma: Yeah; you're getting so big we had to get new ones!

Hayes: (inspecting the new boxers, looking crestfallen) Why to they always say "Hanes?"

momma: Well, that's just the kind we know fits. Should we look for a different kind next time?

Hayes: Yeah! Some that say "Hayes" instead!

Sunday, March 19, 2006

The Big One

It's funny how having children leads us to more self discovery than anything. Today at church we began discussing what our purpose is in having a "children's program" and ended with a discussion about what the gospel really is. Not your typical church service, I admit; neither are we your typical church. Our goal is to come back next week with some specific needs that our children have, or things we would like to develop in our children and see how our church can and cannot meet them. I have no doubt that this will reveal much about what we, ourselves, believe about the gospel and it's effects in and on our lives.

This is scary to me.

Needless to say I am more liberal in my theology than even I ever would have predicted. I do not see eye-to-eye with most evangelical ideas and fundamentalist principles. I balk at the thought of teaching the children anything like what I was indoctrinated with. I am afraid that any attempt at this will fall short and our children will be worse off for it.

However, the thought has occurred to me just today, that although in the last several years I have decided that the church would not be a good place for spiritual formation (ironic, no?), that our church, in fact, is not your typical church. We have beliefs about God that run the gamut. We have about as diverse a group of people as I would believe possible. And yet, more importantly, we have this commitment to one another that surpasses anything I have ever encountered in the church at large. We have stayed together because of this, even though we do not all, praise the lord, think alike.

So although I am still as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof, I am willing to enter into this discussion -- the big one -- about what the gospel is and how we wish to see it played out in the lives of our children. I am willing to trust these people I love so dearly because they are committed to me too. We are not likely to run out on one another simply because we disagree. We are willing to be pushed a little in all directions, even when the stakes are as high as messing up with your own children. God help us all.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Faking It

There is a delightful little article in a recent New Yorker, the one with the delightful cover of Dick Cheney and Heath Ledger. It's about a man who woke up one morning on the subway in New York with absolutely no recollection of who he was or how he came to be on the train. The blurb goes on to discuss how excited he is about learning new things, even about himself, that he is delightfully childlike and pure.

And then there is the suggestion that, because there is no physical evidence to understand what happened to cause this sudden and complete loss of memory, he is faking it. It made me laugh out loud. And it made me wonder, what would be so awful that it would make you want to reinvent yourself like that? Especially in that way? And it made me wonder even further, if I could start all over, blank slate and all, who would I be? Or perhaps, how would I be? Intriguing little question...