The Adventures of Fric and Frac: Adventure 329: Catalina State Park/Post K

Sunday morning church.

One of the most effective (And most fun) activities I practiced during my teaching career was what I called "Tournament Day". As a Language Arts teacher, I always felt vocabulary development was something I could impart that had lasting value for my students, so I held a vocabulary tournament each Thursday for what amounted to half of the period. I always started tournament day by changing the student's seating assignments (which also changed their tournament teams) with what I called "the ceremonial shuffling of the deck". My seating chart was made up of the student pictures I'd taken on the first day of school. I'd take the pictures down, shuffle them like a deck of cards, and pick one student to put his/her hands on the "Fates". The student would cut the deck, make decisions about how the deck was dealt, and the order of placing the pictures. Therefore, the student had his/her hands on the "fates" of his/her fellow students. During this process, I'd rattle off information about Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. These three, according to Greek mythology controlled human existence. Clotho spun the web of life. Lachesis accorded success, failure, twists, and turns, and Atropos decided to cut the thread of life. It was fun, and brings back fond memories for me. Today, as pastor, Jeff Thune, was relaying his message about the apostle Paul's travails, I found myself contemplating the tremors that must have rippled through the Greek and Roman societies as Christianity moved to undermine their gods and idols. We all know change is hard, but imagine an entire belief system being toppled. It must have had the power of a tsunami. Last week, pastor Thune, proclaimed "It is right to risk for the cause of Christ." Today, he extended the message, proclaiming, "It is right to lay down your rights for the cause of Christ." A point that stuck with me is when he said, "This is how we carry ourselves as disciples of Christ." He pointed to Philippians 2:3-5. "....Do nothing from self-conceit...count others more significant...look to others interests before your own." And finally, he challenged us to strategize our life practice in the cause of Christ (I wish President Trump could hear this message). We'll only hear pastor Thune preach twice while we're here, and our normal Sunday worship doesn't come from such an Evangelical root, but I love considering these things, and I find pastor Thune's questions worthy. I remember after we rode across country in 2004 when we spent some time with Ed Drouin's daughter Erica's boss, a Jewish city councilman named Simca. After some questioning about his faith (Which he was eager to discuss), I asked him whether he felt constrained by all the laws and rules of orthodox Judaism. He replied, "I feel just the opposite. The law frees me from confusion, and gives me a certainty for living that I wouldn't otherwise have. I don't have to rely on my own human wits to decide right and wrong. Instead, I rely on the word of God." I'm reminded of this because I always seem to wrestle with the question What is truth? And Who knows what is true? Fortunately, pastor Thune also said today, "it's OK to wrestle with the role God has in store for us." That's good because I do. Mostly, I feel blessed to live in a time of opportunity. I'm fortunate to have my wits about me, and I trust that Lord will work in his own time. I also trust that he's charged me with "carrying myself" in a way that will make me worthy for the kingdom of heaven. For me, it's enough to realize that God makes life good, especially today.