It's Never Just a Goose

Geese.
Lots of geese.
Our church has a beautiful little pond surrounded by several cleared acres in northeast Memphis. This pond is a magnet for Canadian geese. On any given day, you can drive onto our property and see a small flock grazing in the field. These geese are pretty brave in that they graze close to our building, walk to and fro across driveways, and even find themselves in our recreation fields from time to time. Although the geese are beautiful to look at and provide for a picturesque setting for any church, the most distinguished quality I've noticed is that they are never alone. They are always together. It's always geese and never a goose.

I had a very difficult conversation with a young man last night who confessed to me a moral failure he experienced over the weekend. I'm just broken for him. I know how significant sin can be in our lives and I know his life is forever changed because of his lack of judgment. As we talked it became obvious that one of the contributing factors to his indiscretion were his friends. Inasmuch as he fully responsible for his actions, the crowd he runs around with never encouraged him to stick to his moral standard. When he found himself in the situation he didn't have friends helping him get out, he had peers encouraging to stay in.

That's how it is with teenagers. No teenager ever wants to be lonely. Every teenager wants a friend. As teenagers look for friends, they are drawn to the ones who accept them, irregardless of the moral compass that group exhibits. Teenagers, in their efforts to avoid loneliness, will engage in crowds that lead them to bad choices. I'm convinced most teenagers don't really consider the kind of crowd they are with as they find security in being a crowd. Geese, never a goose.

So what how does the church respond? I'm convinced its not all that realistic to tell students to stand out as a goose. I do, however, think its our calling to equip geese with gospel to go and gather more geese for the gospel. We have a lot of Christian teenagers who are too content to be geese in the Christian flock and never consider the gooses out there looking for a new pond. We've got to get our geese off the church property and help understand their calling is to go make disciples among the gooses. In the end, we all love geese, no one wants to be a goose, and we've got to make more room for new flocks.

Cracks in the Sidewalk

Today is my daughter's 4th birthday. It hard to believe that four years ago I stood in the delivery room asking our doctor, "Well, what is it?" and he promply replied, "It's a girl!". My heart skipped a few beats in that I knew how to deal with boys. With two sons already, I had the talks all laid out in my head, the sports balls in the garage, and dreams of watching SEC football together all planned out. "It's a girl!" ruined me. Absolutely ruined me. And I'm so much better for it! There is a special place for daughters and my Lily has her daddy's heart. I'm not sure if it's her eye contact across the dinner table and we both instantly smile at one another or if it's the times when she shows me exactly where the items go in her dollhouse, but she has my heart and I love her more each day.

A few weeks ago we were walking hand in hand and I noticed that she was skipping over the cracks in the sidewalk. When we would approach a crack, she'd pull on my hand just enough to help step over it. At every crack I felt her tug on my hand as she hopped. Hop, hop, hop, crack, crack, crack. After a minute of this I looked down and asked her why she skipped over the cracks and she responded, "I don't know, I just do."

I've been guilty of intentionally missing the cracks as I walk too. I don't do it every time I'm on a sidewalk, but occasionally, I'll adjust my stride just enough to miss the cracks. (I've also been guilty of concentrating too much on missing them that I look rather ridiculous.) It is interesting to think about the cracks in the sidewalk. Most sidewalks are made with gaps every few feet to allow for expansion and movement. These gaps are considered cracks by many, but without these "cracks" the sidewalk would most likely buckle, become uneven, and eventually become useless.

Most of us have "cracks" in our lives that might seem unsightly or at least inconvenient. Divorce, a failed career, physcial disability, depression, a difficult family member all might be cracks in our lives. Sometimes we find ourselves trying to skip over these cracks. Hopping over them is somehow a way of ignoring them. But these cracks may be necessary for growth. They enable us to withstand outside forces and many times they are necessary for us to fulfill our true purpose. Maybe we need to stop trying to skip the cracks and learn to accept their potential usefulness in our lives, relationships, workplace, or ministry. As you're walking the sidewalks of life don't skip the cracks, but embrace them for His purpose and glory. Just as the concrete worker allowed gaps in the sidewalk, so does our Creator allow our cracks and who knows how he plans to use them.

Happy Birthday to my sidewalk crack hopper. May you learn to embrace what God has given you and use them to impact the world.