We've had a great July 4th weekend.
Logan and Morgan came in on Thursday night, and we were all so excited to see them. They took off work, and will be spending all this week in Texas with her family, watching her little brother play in his baseball tournament. So...a few days here...a few days there.
We have done NOTHING to speak of...just, in Joshua's words, "hanged around the house." Lots of eating, lots of swimming, lots of laughing. I love my family.
Yesterday, we had church, and one of Joshua's nightmares came to to life. Have you ever heard the song, "You Are Holy?" It's been a while since we've sung in it our church. Every time we sing it, I wish that I had talked to Joshua about it beforehand. I get the Sunday schedule on the Wednesday night before church, bc CHOIR.
But every time I forget.
What happens is...
Wait. First of all...Joshua has a little bit of a hard time hearing and seeing. He's not deaf or blind, but back when we sang from hymnbooks...it was hard for him...knowing how to follow stanza by stanza and when to sing the chorus...and, that tiny print in the Baptist Hymnal!
Now that I'm OF A CERTAIN AGE...I feel it, too.
So the JUMBOTRON is Joshua's best friend. Nice, big letters make things so much easier for him to read and follow. And, with the attention to detail regarding the sound quality in our newly built worship center (sanctuary), Joshua can hear things pretty well.
In the song, the men and women take turns singing. And, not only that, in the chorus, there is a time when the men and women are singing simultaneously...but singing completely different words. Usually, this is highlighted in some way on The Big Screen, so that everyone is aware of it. Yesterday, it was not. And while most people figured it out, Joshua was not one of those people.
I looked out there and his jaw was set...his defiant "Fred lip" was jutted out...and his arms were folded and crossed over his chest. He.was.over.it.
Pretty sure he was thinking (and maybe even muttering) all the Downsy Bad Words that he knows.
Things went from bad to worse from there.
Joshua loves nothing more than to take notes along with the sermon. And by "take notes," I mean that he loves to fill in the blanks from the page of sermon notes that is printed in our bulletin. Usually it's just one or two words per sermon "point." As soon as the words pop up on The Big Screen, he writes them down on his paper. And if there are 4 points on the paper, as soon as he fills in the 4th point, it's pen UP, notes folded, Bible closed...and he starts his whole socks-folding process and other clothing adjustments that signal that the service is over. Even when it is NOT.
Because the preacher may still be preachin', and the Spirit may still be movin'...but homeboy's ready for lunch.
Just sayin' and AMEN.
We still don't have a head pastor, but the guest preacher did a great job yesterday. He preached on "Understanding the True Meaning of Freedom." He talked about the slave-turned-brother-in-Christ, Onesimus, from the book of Philemon. So, Onesimus was one of the fill-in-the-blank answers.
Joshua started, "O-n-s..." and scratched it out. Then, "O-n-e-i..." and scratched it out. Then, "O-n-e-s-i..." and, as he looked up to see the next letters in the name...the screen changed to the next point.
And that's how Joshua died.
Not really, but we saw the Fred Jaw get set AGAIN, and the Fred Lip come out AGAIN. He set his pen down on his Bible in a not very quiet way...and began to mumble.
I wondered if he was thinking..."FIRST they are changing the words around in a song, and THEN they are speed-racing through the sermon! WHY DO THEY HATE ME?"
Just kidding. He wouldn't say that last part. :)
(Jim sits beside Joshua, so he shared his notes with him)
The only thing that would've made this worse is if the preacher had put a word up on The Big Screen, and then told about it's meaning in GREEK. Yeah. That's happened before.
And Joshua's head? BLOWN.STRAIGHT.UP.
And while I don't think every place we go should go out of their way to make sure that my child is keeping up..."Joshua, I am going to point #2 on the back page, you good with that?"...let's always keep in mind that we don't know the struggles going on with the people around us. Big ones, small ones, annoying ones (the struggles, not the people!). Ha! Somewhere I saw a quote that reads something like, "everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about." Not sure I got that right, but it is thought-provoking.
And while this has nothing to do with this post or anything, I was thinking about a quote from Kelly Minter's book, "Wherever The River Runs." It's such a good book about her travels to the forgotten people of the Amazon. I highly recommend it. Anyway, this:
"The least of these have the most to give."
Yes, Lord. Give us eyes to see.
Big, small, young, old, talented, struggling; black, white, red, brown, yellow; strong, weak, agile, feeble, deaf, blind, mute; healthy, jovial, crippled, athletic, smelly, LOUD; troubled, saved, sickly, beautiful, "ordinary," dirty...clean.
"In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary." 1 Corinthians 12:22
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