Sunday, November 2, 2008

churched....

Halloween night, my wife and I went out with two other couples for dinner and the movie, The Secret Life of Bees. It was a good time to get out and be with close friends. All our kids are beyond the age to make a big deal about the evening, so any excuse to avoid trick or treaters and staying home with the lights turned off appealed to me. The restaurant staff was in full costume though, including a Sarah Palin look alike.

I generally don't pray out loud in restaurants, believing that prayer is sacred and not to be done for show, but in private, where our Heavenly Father can see us. In this instance however, everyone else at the table joined hands to pray for the meal. Feeling awkward, I clasped hands with the others and J.T. thanked God for the food. My silent prayer was that he would be quick about it, because I didn't want to draw the attention of others. J.T. prayed and immediately after, realizing the discomfort, began singing Kum-Ba-Yah. We all chuckled with comic relief.
ChurchedI bought a new memoir today, by author Matthew Paul Turner. The book is entitled, Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess, and reading it reminded me of the antics many of us have encountered from being "churched." Like the author who finds the humor of his upbringing in the church, we still desire to love God and others regardless of all the nonsense we've been through in the past and even now, still sometimes experience. It's great to be able to laugh about our own fumblings toward being the people God wants us to be!