Moses and his cheerleading unit

They say most folks use 10 percent of their brain. Me? I, on occasion, use something in the five percent area code.

Now, those whose IQs rival Gates and Jobs, use closer to 20 percent. If one gets into the 30-to -50-percent community, that area of brain-town where the lots cost, well, a lot and where the houses on those lots are big in price-point (hours watching HGTV to get that phrase friends) and low in size, you got yer big brains like, uh, I don't know, like Tony Stark and such..

So, when I asked my small group of yutes recently (that's the My Cousin Vinny spelling and pronunciation; for anyone else, that would be youths instead of yutes) what is there out there in yute land they would stand up for, fight for, make a major, major issue of, what more could one thin lass do than concentrate like someone who has just seen Bruce the shark come popping out of the water all bloody and toothy and decided a bigger boat was needed.

The skinny, freckled blond squirreled her nose, apparently using it as a rudder on the high seas of yute-dom. She summoned all the brain she could, more than I was cranking at that moment or perhaps any moment, and pondered deep, reflectively, almost emotionally.

What indeed would she stand up for? What would she pronounce as vital, important, worthy? What would she use in this area?

We in the room, of course, being fine up-standing old folks were seeking answers that would include something in the God zipcode, maybe something from the Bible, Jesus, prayer in school or at football games or when the bus driver was trying to get the old bus to start. Maybe the Holy Spirit, or the return of the Mc-Rib. You know, important stuff.

Nose squirreling accomplished, she blurted out her answer, the moral and ethical equivalent of Luther nailing 95 theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany all those years ago for this teen who really was taking this seriously.

What would she go to the mat fighting for? "That cheerleading is a sport," our young theologian said.

There. Fighting through fear and distrust, dancing through and about theological landminds, she skidded to a stop in the cemetery of warbling cheerleaders. Others might find something poking out of the Ten Commandments. Our lass found two-four-six-eight a worthy commandment listing.

I fought my momentary urges like a deaf man given an I-tunes library without instruction. I didn't say a thing. I didn't laugh. I didn't smirk. I didn't even smile. I let her statement sit there like a big ol' turkey on the Thanksgiving Day table.

Now, I'm mostly kidding here, looking for a lighter column after weeks of seriousness, though indeed this happened just like the telling of the tale. The idea that someone would take cheerleading so dang seriously is, uh, serious I reckon. Batman's Joker comes to mind. Why so serious?

So, where is my wandering effort at a point? What are we doing as a community to find a point here? Where is the sky in this painting? The ground? The white picket fences?

My question is this: How does a teen-ager, any teen-ager, any smart young woman although it could be any gender, any faith, reach a stage in their young lives where words like cheerleader, sport and standing up all intersect in a paragraph like the triangle in Twilight?

In other words, while the fight over constitutional rights continues from dawn to dusk, while this land of the once and future King of Kings, the need to teach and preach remains alive.

Jesus is allowed to be a part of young and older lives, but only a part out there in the public square. But say the name too loudly, in the wrong places, at the wrong time, and whole organizations come running ready to file suits. Jesus is a fulcrum of a religion, but we're working hard to make Him a bit player in his own play.

Ultimately, what is at stake is the very heart and minds of our yutes. We need to be teaching and guiding and helping and praying with and praying over and praying about all those yutes, so that when the question arises about what they will stand for, where they will draw the line in the moral sand one day, it will be the real important items in that real important book we call the Bible.

That book clearly teachers that "... I (the Lord, God) have raised you up or this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

We are called to raise up those who follow behind us. To teach. To offer. To give.

Forever and ever, amen.

(And by the way, in answer to that weighty question about cheerleading the answer is no. A thousand times no. Cheerleading is quite worthwhile. But a sport? Nah. Given a golden trophy for a cheerleading tournament, Moses would have melted it down).