Archive for July, 2010

He leaned over to Kim and said, “Can you believe he’s 53?”

It was a remark aimed at the youthfulness of my husband.

“Yeah,” I said. “We’ve got that whole George and Barbara Bush thing going on. People ask if he’s my son.”

Sigh.

Tim loves it when people comment on how young looking he is.

Well, he may look like he doesn’t belong in this 50 crowd, but the really poetic moment came when we discovered that we had all attended the same church together waaaayyyybaaaccckkkwheeeeennnn.

Kim and I were mothers of young children at the same time. This may not have been the first conversation we had. Who can remember that far back? But I loved Kim. I love her honesty, humor and genuine nature. This is not a woman indulgent of the pretentious. My kind of gal.

We learned that waaaayyyy baccckkk wheeennnn we were all “young”  (pun intended) Paul was on staff at East Hills. Tim was in graduate school at Portland State. I was at home, raising our son who turns 31 this Sunday, and trying to work the Christian formula.Which at that time, I remember as shedding the house of all white sugar and white flour. I did that for about as long as Tim could stand it. Then my even younger looking husband demanded that I go out and buy white flour. He didn’t like that stone-ground stuff.

It’s funny now, thinking about all the things that I used to equate with being “Christian.”

At the time I attended East Hills back in the early 1980s, I was all about working the formula. I read books about how to raise good kids (that at least took better than the whole wheat craze). I attended Bible Study at Pastor Cook’s house. What I remember about Jerry Cook is that he was the first fellow I ever heard talk about Vietnam veterans from the pulpit — in an honorable way.

And I remember the praise and worship. It was remarkable. In fact, if you’re read Paul Young’s book, The Shack, the God-character could have been modeled after the gal who lead worship at East Hills. Paul told me she passed away recently. In my mind she’s still in her late 20s. (It’s funny how when you’re in  your 50s you think of yourself as being your own son’s age.)

Paul and Tim both had that MK thing going. In fact, Paul said he used to be a translator for Wycliffe when he was only 5, because he was already speaking like a native. Tim used to do the same thing for his own daddy.

There’s that other thing — Wallowa County — the setting for The Shack. That’s the county where Tim’s grandfather once owned a 3,500 acre ranch, and where his Uncle Bob still owns a logging company.

I’ve spent time in Imnaha, writing.

Today, over lunch, we just sat around talking about raising kids and growing up and writing books and serving God.

Paul has received over 100,000 emails and letters in response to The Shack.

At  our core we are a people created for the transformative power of story.

Created by a God who at his core is simply a poet.

Robert Frost said that a poem begins with a lump in the throat.

We are the lump in the Creator’s throat.

It is over us that he rejoices.

It is over us that he weeps.

It is because of us that he labors.

It is he who is able to create a thing of beauty out of whatever brokenness we offer him.

The power of The Shack is it’s ability to remind us that we are the lump in God’s throat.

Thank you, Paul, for that.

Thanks, too, buddy  for making time for lunch. Tim and I enjoyed it so much.

Forget the week. It’s been one of those years. I am not going into all that but suffice it to say it’s just been one of those years.

Take Monday morning for example.

I was up at 5 a.m. for a pre-scheduled interview with the 700 Club Interactive. I needed to be dressed and ready to Skype in by 7:45.  Only we’d had a thunderstorm the night before. We rarely get thunderstorms here. Not at all like my childhood in Georgia, where I’d stand screaming at the window until Mama hollered at me to get away from the window.

So of course, the internet at the house was out.

Completely not working.

Add to that equation the fact that the dog bit off the end of my nose 10 days ago, making me look like Shriek instead of Cindy Crawford.

And the fact that the Hacker from Hell pursued me until my friend Hugh, (I love this man), was forced to completely move my site to a new server, leaving me without a workable site for 24 hours.

So there I was at 7 a.m. running around trying to find someplace I could Skype in.

I called a friend. She didn’t answer.

I thought of Starbucks but figured, no, too noisy at that time in the a.m.

I drove up the Oxford Suites. One of  the gals the desk told me that their service was for paying customers only. The other one was more merciful. She suggested I find a corner table in the sunroom off the kitchen and Skype in from there.

And so I did.

With the TV blaring and a couple drinking coffee at the other end of the room as Gordon and Terri prayed out loud. In Mississippi seeing people pray in a public place isn’t unusual. In Oregon they will throw your butt in jail for praying in a public square.

Now the good folks at the 700 Club had done their homework, which is more than I can say for about 80 percent of the other news anchors who interview me. They had actually read the book.

And kudos for them for having me on.

I know some of you were, well, shocked.

Whatever the typical 700 Club guest is, you didn’t figure me to be that.

But, lo and behold, we all have stereotypes that need to be challenged,  I reckon.

I am glad Gordon asked the tough questions.

That’s exactly the point behind the sorts of books I write.

If all we ever do is listen to or read people we agree with, we imprison ourselves. We shut ourselves off from each other, comfortably isolated in our own mental cells, surrounded by people who all wear the same bright orange. Or blue. Or red.

You can watch the interview by clicking here.

I’ve heard they condensed it. I don’t know. I can’t bear to watch myself with my Shriek nose.

But please feel free to come back and discuss the interview here and to share the link on your own blog or with your friends on Facebook or Twitter.

Thanks y’all.

Pardon the dust while we clean everything off. The site should be back up soon.