Joydar

I gotta be honest when you work in "church world" for any amount of time, you soon discover that "churchies" take themselves way too seriously.  And in turn they take you way too seriously.  Somehow whatever you just thought, just said, or just did was completely heretical or unbibilical or showed off your pecs too much or was not honoring to someone or something from the year 1976 or you released fireballs from heaven because you used The Message to say it.  And of course, the comments are always followed up with supporting documents, but not from The Message.

And if you preach.... woah nelly.  That's when the radar gets kicked up into "special mode".  I had a "churchie" confront me one time with the fact that I had used the term "hooked up" in my sermon which, when googled by said individual, was found to mean "engaging in pre-marital sex" .... of course.  Therefore, it was completely unacceptable and very disturbing because I was promoting this type of action from the pulpit.  Conversely, I was thrilled that this individual understood the entire point of my sermon... Heavenly hook ups.  Cause I always like to be tricky.  Like one time when I spoke on rolling all that makes up our life into the hand of the God, which really was code speak for smoking doobies.  What most people don't realize is that pastors have competitions to see how much they can do this.  Our latest challenge is to subliminally promote Harry Potter and skinny dipping. 
Laughter, comedy, and sarcasm are beautiful things (especially when you are skinny dipping).

Most often, within the church world, we deal with the serious far more than the satire.  So maybe when you run into the lighter side it can be debilitating rather than refreshing.  In Matthew 14 we find one of those conundrums.  Jesus is chilling out after rock climbing for a little bit.  He had been teaching and healing and pretty much doing what Jesus does, and needed to refill the tanks.  So he's maxing and relaxing and see's the disciples floating in their little boat on their way to the other side o' the lake.  And He get's to thinking... Oh yeah, I gotta get to that side too.  How am I going to get there? 

Well I would submit, the disciples probably figured he was swimming or finding another boat.  And to be honest, not sure if Jesus took swimming lessons.  Hey, it took my 2 older kids 6 times each to get through Otter or Beaver or Horse or whatever that stupid level 1 is called.  And is there anything more frustrating than paying for the same lesson 12 times?  Apparently getting water in your face is extremely traumatic if you are swimming.  Alas, Jesus figures he mind as well kick it up a notch and totally freak out those dopes in the boat.  So he just starts walking on the water.  Beautiful.  To boot, he was probably smiling and waving as he neared the boat.  And he gets the reaction he was looking for... "It's a ghost!"  Beautiful.  "Boys, relax, it's me."  Peter is so jacked he wants to get out there too and Jesus says have at er.  Except Peter sinks, Jesus saves, the disciples shout, the boat lands, the story ends. 

Was there a deeper point to this story?  Yep.  Was this another example of the power of Jesus?  Yep.  Was Jesus intentional with everything he did?  Yep.  Was a memory created for the guys in the boat?  Yep.    
Was Jesus doing what he always did?  Yep. 

And what was that?  Bringing joy to people lives.  Whether it was bringing hope to a place, peace to a tragedy, calm to a storm, or forgiveness to a life.  He was and is and always will be the essence of Joy.

So next time you feel the urge to confront flip flops in church or verbage in a song go climb a mountain. Pull out the "Joydar (Joy Radar people)" and you never know how your perspective might change or what you might find yourself doing instead. 

And if by chance you are looking for a swim teacher, give me a call, we know them all.