ExtraChristy

Many people liked the photo of Bette Lynn and me in front of a heart sign from last week’s post. Some commented on the weight I’ve lost since last May, others on how happy we looked, a couple wanted to know about the sign and the Cove Haven resort where “Loved Lived”.

But the most interesting part of the photo cannot be seen anywhere in the photo but is a critical part of it: The Photographer. I’ve asked the person who took this photo to raise his hand.

Yes, that is Ray Simpson. In addition to being our vacation photographer, he is the “cop” and lead singer of the Village People..

This is how we got our picture taken by such an icon.

We wanted to have a picture by the heart sign at the resort. As I stood by the sign, Bette Lynn walked back the path and asked the couple walking behind us if they would take our picture by the sign. She offered the man our camera.

Posing awkwardly by the large heart sign, I wondered what was taking so long. Instead of taking the camera, the man just looked at the camera in confusion. Finally, the woman with him, explained the project to him, “They want YOU to take THEIR picture.”

That explanation helped! He smiled, said “Oh!” and good naturally took several photos of us. He had us review the pictures and while we were, offered to take more if we wanted. We declined his thoughtful offer and thanked him.

We thought nothing more of the hesitant turned enthusiastic photographer until he walked out on stage that night with the rest of the Village People. Bette Lynn, leaned over to me and shouted above the roar of cheers and song: “The cop took our picture!” I was confused now, (he had a microphone not a camera) then I realized the one who was working behind the scene was now stage front.
Ray Simpson performing with the Village People at Cove Haven Resort in 2011
Looking at the photo, even being in the photo, doesn’t tell the whole story of who is involved in the big picture.

Hope you look behind the camera and get to meet who is working behind the scene.

Behind What A Camera Sees

So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever. - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group
Ray Simpson performing with the Village People at Cove Haven Resort in 2011

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Here are some gems from the last week:

Crash for Clunkers = Demo Derby at Medina County Fair

My MP3 player has a playlist for my car. The songs have a beat that matches the seat belt alarm.

The last book in a series I ordered 10 years ago came this week. I remember when I used books…

The only answer to “Can you hear me if I don't use the mike?” is “What?”

FAFSA Bribed son with ½ cost of new hard drive to get him to file the dreaded FAFSA. Worth it. Hate that process.

@aflowerwriter I hope the editor's comments were “kind even gentle” Congrats!

Is it wrong to thank God for a Worship sound system tune-up ? Wow! I can hear clearly now the muffle is gone…

@edstetzer Soccer is communist kickball with arms control.

@diannao World Largest steer is on display in Kokomo. Only female in group asked what made a bull a steer. None of us would tell her.

The very pregnant preschool teacher tells me “I think I'm in trouble…” It was't what I thought.

I spend quality time in hospital elevators, often I'm the only rider, so I am not legally required to stare at the floor numbers over the door in concert with my fellow riders. Freed from pretending to move the car between floors by group concentration, I read the emergency signs, a habit left over from my fire-fighting days. One elevator car had a small red label with the usual helpfully numbered instructions, mostly about location and use of the phone, but the command that caught my eye was the third step.

3. Remain Calm

The “Remain” part assumes that riders are still calm after realizing they are stuck in an elevator and have completed steps 1 and 2 of the escape plan without obtaining immediate freedom or purposeful motion. I think I would put “Remain Calm” at the top of any list that needed this directive. Maybe even before “Step 1”. I might even assume that folks trapped in a steel box held by a cable over a chasm, might not be calm at the beginning of our endeavor and instruct them to “Calm Down”, “Think Calming Thoughts”, or even “Don't Panic!”

I got to see this instruction in action one day. A security guard was leaning on the door of an elevator with an out of order sign on it. I said something witty to him and he answered me, then turned and talked to the crack on floor. His gaze returned to eye level and he calmly explained, “They're stuck and I'm keeping them company until the repair person comes.”

He was the calm. He couldn't get them out, but he could stay with them until they were free. He couldn't tell them how or when they would be free, but he could assure them that there would be a way out. Instead of a command to be calm, he gave the occupants a reason for being calm: You are not alone and help is on the way.

Made me think of when we are stuck in crisis and how calming the promise of Christ's presence is. Being in the presence of God is the short definition of worship; relating to God is a good description of prayer. It is helpful in times of stress (which is all the time!) to go beyond the command to “Be Calm” or even “Have Faith!”, and find the reason for the assurance of faith in worship and prayer where Christians affirm the calm security in knowing that we are not alone and help is on the way.

Reasons for Calm

You have looked deep into my heart, LORD, and you know all about me.You know when I am resting or when I am working, and from heaven you discover my thoughts.You notice everything I do and everywhere I go.Before I even speak a word, you know what I will say, and with your powerful arm you protect me from every side.I can't understand all of this! Such wonderful knowledge is far above me.Where could I go to escape from your Spirit or from your sight? If I were to climb up to the highest heavens, you would be there. If I were to dig down to the world of the dead you would also be there. Suppose I had wings like the dawning day and flew across the ocean. Even then your powerful arm would guide and protect me.- Psalm 139: 1-10 (CEV)

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I enjoy pre-marital counseling. Listening to a couple in love talk about their relationship strengths and “growth areas” is always familiar yet new with each pair.

Like “happily ever after” in fairy tale accounts of weddings; I admit I have some stock lines I use: like asking if either of them is going to change their names. The big surprise is when I ask them why they are getting married…a question they don't expect from someone in the wedding business, and one surprisingly hard for some couples to answer.

Another surprise comes when I share the statistic that cohabitating couples are more likely to divorce than those that do not live together before marriage. (This is according to no less than the Center for Disease Control: First marriages that were preceded by cohabitation are more likely disrupted than those that were not preceded by cohabitation. Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the United States 2002 p. 28) Folks are surprised, because they think that “playing house” is a good way to divorce proof a marriage. This points out there is something different between cohabitation and marriage.

Which bring us back to the question about why get married. Our marriage service in the Book of Common Worship says:

God created us male and female, and gave us marriage so that husband and wife may help and comfort each other, living faithfully together in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, throughout all their days.

God gave us marriage for the full expression of the love between a man and a woman. In marriage a woman and a man belong to each other.

God gave us marriage for the well-being of human society, for the ordering of family life, and for the birth and nurture of children.

What is your answer? I am drawn to the part about “belonging to each other”. It is good to have an answer to the question of “Why marriage?” whether your wedding day is in the future or the past.

Two Become One

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called 'woman,'
for she was taken out of man.”

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.- Genesis 2: 20-24 (NIV)

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Years before in car GPS systems and Internet map routes, my older brother Ric was a master of the turns and twists of greater Akron. He would drive me off the beaten path into strange neighborhoods and he would ask me, “Do you know where you are…now?” “No,” was my answer again and again, until, suddenly; we were at our destination.

Sometimes I could retrace the back way he took; usually not until after one or two attempts. I wondered how many tries it took him to find the connecting streets through town that enable him to pop up like a rabbit miles from where he started, but only a few yards from our target.

In our new members Inquirer's class, we have people who have been in the church all their life, some that haven't come since they were children years ago, and some who never had any contact with the church! Yet here they all are, together at one church, which, by God's grace, is part of all of their spiritual journeys.

I think of the varied and unusual routes my brother took when there were perfectly good and straight streets with names like “Market” and “Main” available for him to use for his journey. Yet he ended up at the same place those big, broad, commonly used streets would have taken him.

I like to think there are many paths to heaven and salvation; not just the standard ones most people choose. I hope that the church will always be a place where folks on many different routes can get an answer to where they are and help on their own way.

Together From All Over

Many religious Jews from every country in the world were living in Jerusalem. 6And when they heard this noise, a crowd gathered. But they were surprised, because they were hearing everything in their own languages. They were excited and amazed, and said:

Don't all these who are speaking come from Galilee? Then why do we hear them speaking our very own languages? Some of us are from Parthia, Media, and Elam. Others are from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya near Cyrene, Rome, Crete, and Arabia. Some of us were born Jews, and others of us have chosen to be Jews. Yet we all hear them using our own languages to tell the wonderful things God has done. - Acts 2:5-11 (CEV)

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