The Line

I start a new series tomorrow entitled “Called!”  I don’t want to give away the farm by sharing everything about the series, so, in short, the series will cover a few things that I believe every Christ Follower is called to.  One of those things is relational community, and how in Las Vegas, I’ve found that so many individuals are relationally impoverished.  People that aren’t doing life at a deep and committed level.  It’s really a sad thing, but one that I believe local church’s & committed Christ Followers can actively move towards changing.

Prior to coming to Vegas, I was on staff at a church that had a private school on campus that my children attended.  One of the things I would regularly do is, I would walk across the campus (my office was on the other side of the building) a couple of times a week to check on my children.  Often times, when I would come over, they would be in line with their other peers, and I would have a little fun. Juilia (my youngest daughter) had a fun class, and it never seemed to fail when I would walk over, and give her hug or high five her, that one kid after the other would want me to do the same thing to them.  I know I had to tick the teacher off, because it never seemed to fail, complete chaos would break out every time I would find one of my children in a school line.  I even got the kids going on saying the phrase “Whaassssss Uuuuuppp!!”

One day when I came over to rile up the line of kids, I noticed a few new kids in the line.  It didn’t stop them from wanting to high five me though, and I even got them to say “Whaasssss Uuuuuupp!!”  When I was leaving I heard a kid say, “Who was that guy anyway?”  Then I heard another kid say “It doesn’t matter, that was great!  Whaaaassss Uuuuuppp!”  It always gave me great satisfaction to interact with the kids, but it also dawned on me one day with these new kids who didn’t know me from Adam.  They saw love being exchanged between my daughter and I and these other students, and they wanted to be part of part of it.  It was amazing to me that they were willing to embrace, and high five a complete stranger.  Why?  I think it was because God has wired us as human beings to crave love and affection.  These kids saw a little bit of love being exchanged, and it didn’t matter if I was a complete stranger, they wanted a part of it.   I hope everyone can have a line experience sometime in their life.  If you haven’t had one yet, maybe it’s time for you to “Walk The Line!”