Turning 55
I turned 55 this weekend.
But what have I done in these 55 years? What is the connection between a skinny, little "tow-headed" boy playing in the mud in his father's vineyard and the United Methodist missionary living and working in Singapore? How is it that a kid who was contented to tend the vineyard and help with the small-town, family photo business ended up on the other side of the world?
For the young boy, that central California vineyard seemed like the center of the universe, a playground for the fingers and the imagination. What amazing things can happen when the fingers and the imagination get hold of a clump of mud! Just ask God.
But the universe expanded, and so did its center. The family guided me. All the extended family guided. Besides all the things you're supposed to learn in school, I grew into music - singing, piano, flute, the record player. The church graciously guided me along, and slowly started turning me into a leader - an often reluctant leader. Who me? UMYF president? Chaplain of the newly formed high school Christian club? I graduated from high school with little fanfare other than the usual pomp and circumstances.
The local community college next became my playground. Somehow again I found myself reluctantly in Christian leadership again, as president of the IVCF chapter. But the universe kept expanding. I flew for the first time in a commercial airliner for a three week course near Dallas, Texas run by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. My vision was expanding. Still, I needed to take a two-year hiatus, after an already long stay in the two year school, in order to work as a small-town newspaper reporter in southern Tulare County. Again, I ended up in Christian leadership. The country church pastor needed someone to work with the youth - meaning, lead some songs on guitar and inspire them. I learned to play guitar and we had fun.
I almost got married.
Instead I completed another three years of college (Fresno Pacific), with a double major B.A. in Religious Studies and Communication. No "s", please. People communicate with each other in order to form community. Telephones and computers send and receive data.
The proud owner of a college diploma was not above his mother's call. I didn't have another immediate plan, so when I got the call to help at the family photo business for a short time, I agreed. Quite reluctantly. After all, the universe had expanded, and its center was now much bigger than Dinuba or a little patch of vineyard or a handful of mud. I was going places.
Ok. I was going back to Dinuba. The family business needed help. The short time turned into 7 plus years. A lot happened during that time. I re-established my love of photography and did "Gilbert and Sullivan." I almost got married. Poor dear. I taught Sunday school, preached occasionally, led singing, did a fact-finding trip with a group of pastors to Bolivia. Wow!
The pastor asked me, "Do you have a call to be a preacher?" God? What were you doing playing in the mud? Is this what you had in mind? The little muddy figure started to breath, and then it started to kick up its legs and dance. I followed the serpentine dance singing, "Dance, then, wherever you may be. I am the Lord of the dance, said. And I'll lead you all wherever you may be, and I'll lead you all in the dance, said he."
I'm not sure the committee on ordination got it. Well, maybe I didn't even understand it yet. We don't have three years of catechism, like the Roman Catholics, so what did I know what it really meant to lead the Lord's dance? I'm really not much of a dancer myself.
But it happened. God was dancing and I had to follow. Ordained a deacon in 1993. Same year I graduated from Claremont. I had gotten married. I think we were both delightfully surprised, Chin Cheak and I. America was a foreign mission field to her. The universe and expanded, and the center was getting a lot bigger.
My first foreign mission field was to Baldwin Park, about 20 miles east of Los Angeles. My great uncle, Harry McFarland, was a pastor there in the 1930s. One elderly member still remembered his big voice. But the town had become a different place. It took me a few years, but we finally started a Spanish language service with indigenous leadership. Maybe God was also preparing me for the next mission field.
As Chin Cheak was finishing her Ph.D. we talked about "returning" to her alma mater in Singapore. What me? A farm kid from central California moving to that compact and uptight Asian city state?
The universe is expanding, and its centre has become the Pacific Rim. God dances across the waters and plays with the mud in the Singapore jungle reserves and in the MRT construction sites. I've seen God crafting persons out of the mud in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and China, to name a few places. God is calling his people to kick up their heals again, to live out the fullness that his breath inspires, to sing and make music, to declare the liberating word of God's love. Some people have gotten stuck on the printed page. The words need to take wings and fly. God is flying ahead of us, in the Spirit, breathing possibilities into every freaking situation. And for those who think it insignificant, God went all out, poured his life out on a cross. This is serious play. Don't ever waste your talent in a hole. Dig it up and use it. Don't ever waste an opportunity. God doesn't.
As David Haas has sung, "Come, live in the light! Shine with the joy and the love of the Lord! We are called to be light for the kingdom, to live in the freedom of the city of God!" May this place resemble the city of God.
Retirement is a ways off yet, but now it is time to live more fully into the life of God.
But what have I done in these 55 years? What is the connection between a skinny, little "tow-headed" boy playing in the mud in his father's vineyard and the United Methodist missionary living and working in Singapore? How is it that a kid who was contented to tend the vineyard and help with the small-town, family photo business ended up on the other side of the world?
For the young boy, that central California vineyard seemed like the center of the universe, a playground for the fingers and the imagination. What amazing things can happen when the fingers and the imagination get hold of a clump of mud! Just ask God.
But the universe expanded, and so did its center. The family guided me. All the extended family guided. Besides all the things you're supposed to learn in school, I grew into music - singing, piano, flute, the record player. The church graciously guided me along, and slowly started turning me into a leader - an often reluctant leader. Who me? UMYF president? Chaplain of the newly formed high school Christian club? I graduated from high school with little fanfare other than the usual pomp and circumstances.
The local community college next became my playground. Somehow again I found myself reluctantly in Christian leadership again, as president of the IVCF chapter. But the universe kept expanding. I flew for the first time in a commercial airliner for a three week course near Dallas, Texas run by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. My vision was expanding. Still, I needed to take a two-year hiatus, after an already long stay in the two year school, in order to work as a small-town newspaper reporter in southern Tulare County. Again, I ended up in Christian leadership. The country church pastor needed someone to work with the youth - meaning, lead some songs on guitar and inspire them. I learned to play guitar and we had fun.
I almost got married.
Instead I completed another three years of college (Fresno Pacific), with a double major B.A. in Religious Studies and Communication. No "s", please. People communicate with each other in order to form community. Telephones and computers send and receive data.
The proud owner of a college diploma was not above his mother's call. I didn't have another immediate plan, so when I got the call to help at the family photo business for a short time, I agreed. Quite reluctantly. After all, the universe had expanded, and its center was now much bigger than Dinuba or a little patch of vineyard or a handful of mud. I was going places.
Ok. I was going back to Dinuba. The family business needed help. The short time turned into 7 plus years. A lot happened during that time. I re-established my love of photography and did "Gilbert and Sullivan." I almost got married. Poor dear. I taught Sunday school, preached occasionally, led singing, did a fact-finding trip with a group of pastors to Bolivia. Wow!
The pastor asked me, "Do you have a call to be a preacher?" God? What were you doing playing in the mud? Is this what you had in mind? The little muddy figure started to breath, and then it started to kick up its legs and dance. I followed the serpentine dance singing, "Dance, then, wherever you may be. I am the Lord of the dance, said. And I'll lead you all wherever you may be, and I'll lead you all in the dance, said he."
I'm not sure the committee on ordination got it. Well, maybe I didn't even understand it yet. We don't have three years of catechism, like the Roman Catholics, so what did I know what it really meant to lead the Lord's dance? I'm really not much of a dancer myself.
But it happened. God was dancing and I had to follow. Ordained a deacon in 1993. Same year I graduated from Claremont. I had gotten married. I think we were both delightfully surprised, Chin Cheak and I. America was a foreign mission field to her. The universe and expanded, and the center was getting a lot bigger.
My first foreign mission field was to Baldwin Park, about 20 miles east of Los Angeles. My great uncle, Harry McFarland, was a pastor there in the 1930s. One elderly member still remembered his big voice. But the town had become a different place. It took me a few years, but we finally started a Spanish language service with indigenous leadership. Maybe God was also preparing me for the next mission field.
As Chin Cheak was finishing her Ph.D. we talked about "returning" to her alma mater in Singapore. What me? A farm kid from central California moving to that compact and uptight Asian city state?
The universe is expanding, and its centre has become the Pacific Rim. God dances across the waters and plays with the mud in the Singapore jungle reserves and in the MRT construction sites. I've seen God crafting persons out of the mud in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and China, to name a few places. God is calling his people to kick up their heals again, to live out the fullness that his breath inspires, to sing and make music, to declare the liberating word of God's love. Some people have gotten stuck on the printed page. The words need to take wings and fly. God is flying ahead of us, in the Spirit, breathing possibilities into every freaking situation. And for those who think it insignificant, God went all out, poured his life out on a cross. This is serious play. Don't ever waste your talent in a hole. Dig it up and use it. Don't ever waste an opportunity. God doesn't.
As David Haas has sung, "Come, live in the light! Shine with the joy and the love of the Lord! We are called to be light for the kingdom, to live in the freedom of the city of God!" May this place resemble the city of God.
Retirement is a ways off yet, but now it is time to live more fully into the life of God.
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