mid-morning time waster:

"tonight, on a very special episode..."

is it possible to hear those words without thinking about child pornography, adolescent drug abuse and unintentional comedy? over the past couple of days a few of us have been creating a list of of the creepiest very special episodes of all time. after you read our top three, take a few moments to weigh in.

1. gordon jump, the trustworthy maytag repairman and part-time bicycle shop owner introduces arnold and dudley to the wild world of pornography and somehow gets dudley to take his shirt off.*



2. webster secretly wishes that katherine's baby would go away and then feels personally responsible when she miscarries.**



3. blair and tootie take mrs. garrett to a male strip club***



* similar very special episodes on webster (where our little friend finds out that his teacher is molesting another student and is planning to molest him next) and on facts of life (where tootie is lured into child pornography by a sneaky photographer) served to confirm our suspicions that it is downright dangerous to be a poor black kid in a white middle-class world.

** in subsequent episodes we learn that katherine didn't really have a miscarriage, but an abortion (after she learned that she was duped duped into adopting not a needy little black kid, but a greedy little dwarf).

*** on a positive note, later interviews suggest that this tawdry episode directly contributed to lisa whelchel becoming a christian and subsequently writing a ever-growing number of priceless child training manuals for focus on the family.

musing…

i probably shouldn’t even talk about this, since i’m still in the midst of processing. but i need to say something, because often times blogging makes internal issues more real for me.*

for the past three and a half years, i have been a bi-vocational preacher.** sometimes stumbling down the bi-vocational path is incredibly liberating*** and sometimes it is overwhelmingly frustrating.**** lately it’s felt more like the latter.*****

in the midst of my frustration concerning my occupation, i’ve been flailing about and trying to catch hold of some sort of work that i might find meaningful. i’ve considered social work, obsessed about teaching and even considered selling my swimmers. i’m just joking about the last part, but teaching and social work have been on my mind a lot.

however, this morning, as i dodged the sanitation workers on the way to work and openly wondered whether their job is more satisfying than mine****** i realized that i need to be careful lest i choose an occupation that is really another vocation. at the moment, teaching seems to fit the latter bill better than social work, but i dunno.

i suppose i’m saying is that in the midst of my occupational confusion i don’t want to trade my vocation******* for something else that appears good but would ultimately be less than the best.

i suppose that i’m also asking for your prayers and wisdom as i continue to muddle my way through a year that has been stained with unexpected death and unexpectedly scented with the hope of new life. i hate to ask for help like this, but i don’t think that my vocation is simply a possession. rather, i think that God gave it to me for the good of Christ’s community and for the world.

i fear this is as clear as mud. but there you go.


* yes, i realize that’s a bit pathetic.
** for those of you who didn’t slog your way through Bible college and/or seminary, bi-vocational ministry is where you work a real job in order to support your work in the church and, as a result, often fail to do either work or church as well as you would like.
*** especially when you enjoy your day job and are free to serve God and others without a lot of unnecessary restrictions, regulations and censorship.
**** especially when you job sucks and you have no time to do the ministry tasks you love, much less the ministry tasks you hate.
***** which is probably why i’m writing. i tend to dwell on the glass half empty a lot more than tend to the glass half full. shocking, i know.
****** the jury is still out on that one.
******* which is to proclaim the subversive hope of the gospel and incarnate Christ’s compassion to a sick and dying world