Thursday, October 11, 2007

Full Throttle


My pastor likes NASCAR.
I like my pastor anyway.
He is so full of passion!
Thrills! Spills!
The lost are saved!
I really like him.

And I have always loved the church. There is something about the Church - the corporate body of Jesus - that seems magnificent to me. I used to get very caught up in serving at church. Not for any of the right reasons. Just to be part of it all - the Thrills, the Spills!

I soon found I was so worn out from serving that I started not to care very much anymore. The same sorts of things kept happening. Like a revolving door the same issues and questions came around again and again. The music was too loud. The nursery was disorganized. I became critical. Nothing was good enough for me. I wasn't good enough for me. I just sort of felt like sleeping in when Sunday rolled around.

But I kept attending. I kept seeing those lovely faces. And those lovely moments that surprised us all every time. The altar call. The testimony. The renewed committment. The great big thermometer with mercury squirting out the top! Lovely.

It helped so much to step back. I didn't step out, just back. One step. I slowed myself. I breathed. I thought. I stopped. No longer a Mover or a Shaker, I felt content to be a helper. It was a life-changing thing for me. To let the others thrill and spill. To walk gently among them. Quiet. Peculiar. Slow.

We arrived at church last Sunday to find that the annual fall mobilization is on. The vision has been cast. The direction plotted. And our motto for the year is this:

"Racing Into The Future Full Throttle"

The husband smiled at me and I smiled back. Kindness. It is very nearly the exact antithesis of my philosophy of life!

For a few days after hearing it, I walked around the house saying things like, "Okay you, slow down there. Why are you racing into the future full throttle? Let's all just speak quietly and move slowly." We laughed and I shook my head.

And yet, there is a sort of style in the whole thing. The banner across the front of the sanctuary. The pastor in full NASCAR gear. The countdown clock running. It is not really about beauty. But it is about hearts set on a prize. It is about resisting inertia. It is about passion and love for those lovely lost.

And I am right in the middle of it. Oh, maybe standing toward the back. Maybe listening instead of speaking. Maybe playing my bass just a little behind the drummer. Maybe I'm just the one who stands holding the door.

zoom zoom.

5 comments:

JoannCryderman said...

I, too, am one that enjoys the slowness of life. Savoring the moments. Reading your blog is always a favorite slow moment in my day. Thank you for sharing.

Kulio said...

Heart!!!!

You speak!

You warm my heart.

peace and love :-)

Carin said...

Here's to savoring slowness!

cjs

Diane said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Diane said...

In case you wondered, I think I had a mispelled word in my comment and then I didn't have time to go back and change it.

Loved your piece...will write later. I've got to race full-throttle to the Sorghum Festival Parade right now.....