Walking the line with bothfeet in the worlds of faith and life means making some hard decisions. Preparation for the really tough world decisions starts with the smaller ones; which are still very important. Let me offer an example.
My church offers confirmation instruction on a weekly basis for 7-10th grades. We meet on Wednesday evenings, as this still works as one of the very few weekly moments not deeply affected by the monstrous schedules our young people keep. Well, guess what? Halloween falls on Wednesday this year. Hence, we had to make a decision whether to keep our weekly schedule or cancel. The question for me is, what message does this send both to our young people and their parents?
If we cancel, we succumb to a cultural craziness for a holiday, (which isn’t even a holiday, just a day we have some fun). If we keep our schedule there’s pushback that we’re insensitive, out of touch, that sort of thing. Not a great situation.
Here’s what we decided: We’ll keep our schedule but have our youth out in the community doing service projects from 6:30-8pm. The overall sense is that kids these ages aren’t of the trick-or-treating years. If they do have a party, they could certainly go after some service to our community. If some of the younger ones are still in the trick-or-treat mode, great! Have fun! After all, I’d be the first to be there, too.
Thankfully, the issue only arises every 6-7 years. No easy decisions, here. What parent wants to make that call when their daughter or son grumbles about confirmation on Halloween? These are the tough pieces if we live with bothfeet, especially in the realm of faith and life. Again, the real struggle for me is wondering what kind of message we send to our kids. Our decisions matter.
When the big decisions and issues come our way, we hope our smaller decisions prepared us for such events. So, I’ll live with bothfeet. I just hope they’re not tied to a cement block.
Archive for October, 2012
Perhaps you’ve heard expressions such as, “living with one foot in life and the other in the grave.” It is a somewhat morbid sentiment, but I kind of like it. You see, I’ve lived my life in the in-between places, one foot in one world, one foot in another. Yet, bothfeet and both worlds make up the whole person. We live in a world where the divisions run deep; city–country, conservative–liberal, Democrat–Republican, church folks–non-church people, etc…you get the point. I see in my own experience an average person who traverses many worlds and discovers the joy and blessing of it all.
For instance, both of my parents were farm kids and their family farms were only about 15 miles from the city of my youth, (small city, but city nonetheless). Hence, I grew up in town spent half my time on the farm. Am I a farm kid or city kid? The answer is yes. For another example, at one point in my life I was a member of both the NRA and the Sierra Club. Both of whom uphold some ideals I value. (I’m no longer a member of either group). Politically, I hold some values in the Republican Party platform. Some on the Democrat’s side of the aisle are dear to me. In matters of church and faith old traditions bring deep meaning to my heart and soul. Conversely, some new thoughts, discoveries and worships styles stir my faith into action.
Now, I realize the armchair psychologists may read this and suggest intensive therapy. Yes, I’ve spent some very productive hours searching these realities for who I am and what it means for the living of my life. At the same time, I’m not always so sure my experiences are that far off from much of America. Four years ago, the presidential race introduced us to Joe the Plumber. This time around both candidates fight for the middle class, claiming their respective administrations will offer the best for us in the middle. Interesting.
So now, bothfeetblog is born. Here is a place where ideas will be shared about common occurrences, where ideas about faith and everyday life will arise. Living with bothfeet, even if alone they seem to be in opposing worlds, can be a great place to ride through this existence.
bothfeetblog 