I once sat five feet from the Amazing Kreskin. That might not shake your toupee, but when I was in my early 20s, man, that was a big deal to me.
It happened this way: I was sports editor of the Starkville Daily News, the first full-time sports editor they had. I was full of, well, myself. I had seen Kreskin one George Kresge, on the Tonight Show so many times I knew much of the act by heart and by head. I saw him perform at Meridian Junior College. I saw him on his on The Amazing World of Kristin TV show. I was so amazed by him that I read his biography. I was an Amazing Kreskin groupee, so to speak.
My big moment came when Kreskin was scheduled to appear at Mississippi State University, located (for those who might not know it) in Starkville, Miss. Turns out that not everyone was a Kreskin fan. When at the news budget meeting someone mentioned having an opportunity for a one-on-one interview with The Amazing (which I assumed was his first name, and which legally became his first name later -- and I'm not making that up), no one knew who he was.
Except (TA,DA) me. I said I would go do it if I had to. I said this with my tongue lying on the table where it had landed when the question was posed about doing a one-on-one with Amazing (or George, as the case might be). They said yes.
I was in.
I don't remember the interview itself. There is no real record of the story I wrote for both the SDN and the campus newspaper (where I went by the name Billy Vise).
I suspect Amazing wiped my memory clean, or substituted something for the real memories or some such. The Amazing didn't claim to be filled with prophecy. He didn't know when dinner would be served two hours before it as served or anything like that. He knew, well, tricks. He called himself a Mentalist, much like the character on CBS' The Mentalist years later. He could hypnotize you in seconds, which didn't work on me -- though I have this real urge to cluck like a chicken in the evenings.
I say all that to say this, I don't know when the next health scare will come in my life, but I know He will be there when it happens. He doesn't always change the circumstances. He always chances how I see and react to the circumstances, if I let Him.
It happened this way: I was sports editor of the Starkville Daily News, the first full-time sports editor they had. I was full of, well, myself. I had seen Kreskin one George Kresge, on the Tonight Show so many times I knew much of the act by heart and by head. I saw him perform at Meridian Junior College. I saw him on his on The Amazing World of Kristin TV show. I was so amazed by him that I read his biography. I was an Amazing Kreskin groupee, so to speak.
My big moment came when Kreskin was scheduled to appear at Mississippi State University, located (for those who might not know it) in Starkville, Miss. Turns out that not everyone was a Kreskin fan. When at the news budget meeting someone mentioned having an opportunity for a one-on-one interview with The Amazing (which I assumed was his first name, and which legally became his first name later -- and I'm not making that up), no one knew who he was.
Except (TA,DA) me. I said I would go do it if I had to. I said this with my tongue lying on the table where it had landed when the question was posed about doing a one-on-one with Amazing (or George, as the case might be). They said yes.
I was in.
I don't remember the interview itself. There is no real record of the story I wrote for both the SDN and the campus newspaper (where I went by the name Billy Vise).
I suspect Amazing wiped my memory clean, or substituted something for the real memories or some such. The Amazing didn't claim to be filled with prophecy. He didn't know when dinner would be served two hours before it as served or anything like that. He knew, well, tricks. He called himself a Mentalist, much like the character on CBS' The Mentalist years later. He could hypnotize you in seconds, which didn't work on me -- though I have this real urge to cluck like a chicken in the evenings.
I say all that to say this, I don't know when the next health scare will come in my life, but I know He will be there when it happens. He doesn't always change the circumstances. He always chances how I see and react to the circumstances, if I let Him.
That's what is at stake, sorta, kinda. That's what is at hand, sorta, kinda. That's what the pulpit holds, the future holds, the church holds, our marriage holds. Oh, that's what is in the cards. I don't know what the future holds, friends, but I know who does.
Yesterday as we were driving to still another ball game, out of the blue 8-year-old Gavin says of 11-year-old Gabe, "Gabe will have his driver's license when you guys come back." He was referring to what I have said will be a 6-year or 7-year stay in our next church appointment in Coushatta, La. After nearly driving off the road while I pondered Gabe driving, I agreed. We probably will miss much of his teen years if we are blessed with a good, long appointment. That's the gig, though. That's what I've prayed for, time to help continue the change in the community we are going to.
Yesterday as we were driving to still another ball game, out of the blue 8-year-old Gavin says of 11-year-old Gabe, "Gabe will have his driver's license when you guys come back." He was referring to what I have said will be a 6-year or 7-year stay in our next church appointment in Coushatta, La. After nearly driving off the road while I pondered Gabe driving, I agreed. We probably will miss much of his teen years if we are blessed with a good, long appointment. That's the gig, though. That's what I've prayed for, time to help continue the change in the community we are going to.
As I write this, pondering what lies ahead in our future, Bruce Springsteen is singing and playing one of my top five songs ever. Thunder Road is blaring ... "maybe we're not that young anymore.."
Bruce penned this song back when youth was something you bought at the local drug store not on-line. In Springsteen's book Songs in 1998, he wrote that Thunder Road opens the Born to Run album by introducing its characters and its central proposition, "Do you want to take a chance? On us? On life?"
Today, all these years later, the question is just as real. "We got one last chance to make it real/To trade in these wings on some wheels." It doesn't get any more real that that, friends.
My question is, do you want to trust in a God who says He will make everything perfect or do you want to trust in a God who says He has your back even when things aren't perfect?
That's my God. I want to introduce you to Him. Things might not work out the way you want, but do you want to take a chance just this once and extend your hand and take His and begin the long journey of a lifetime together, go down that long sometime lonesome highway together?
That's what is at stake, each and every day we take breath.
As some songwriter put it long ago, "I don't know about tomorrow; I just live from day today. I don't borrow from its sunshine for its skies may turn to grey. I don't worry o'er the future, For I know what Jesus said. And today I'll walk beside Him, For He knows what lies ahead. Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand But I know who holds tomorrow and I know who holds my hand."
I know who holds my hand. I want to introduce you to Him. That's why I do whatever it is I do. Nothing more. Nothing less.
That's life. Take His hand and let's drive on out of the valley together.
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