Letterman Live...Almost

A long, long time ago...

...I can still remember how I accompanied our only son, fresh out of high school, to New York City. He was entering a two-year course of study at Circle in the Square Theatre, and I was spending four days with him; helping him learn the subway system and trying my best to let go.

Just for kicks, we had arranged to attend a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman. (Yes, even though it appears to be a live show, it [and all the other late-night talk shows] are taped the afternoon prior to broadcast.)

Prior to picking up your tickets and entering the theater, a couple staff members walk along the line of waiting audience members...just chatting with people, getting a feel for the personality of the people attending that day...but also looking for possible participants in any audience-participation game that might be played in that particular episode.

Curtis and I were thrilled to be picked as possible players in that night's game. We were instructed to leave the line we were in and go around to the stage entrance (right next to the Hello Deli, for those of you familiar with the show) where we would be ushered in (along with others) at the appropriate time to take seats along one of the aisles, making ourselves available for David Letterman's merriment.

The door opened, an assistant waved our anxious little group in, and within 10 steps, we found ourselves walking across the stage where people like Tom Hanks and Paul McCartney come out to the sound of thunderous applause.

My first thought was, "Wow, this is a lot smaller than how it looks on TV." My second thought was, "Hey we better book it off stage into those aisle seats, because the rest of the madding crowd is coming in and starting to fill the place."

As it turned out, Curtis and I weren't picked to actually interact with Mr. Letterman, but we enjoyed watching the show...on the large monitors at the front of the seating area.

That's right. There we sat...not 20 yards from where Letterman was interviewing Jennifer Lopez, and instead of watching them, we were experiencing the show like we always did...on a television screen.

Truth is...it's really easy to go through our whole lives like that; business-as-usual, ho-hum, it-is-what-it-is. But Jesus came so we "may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10) Let's not be guilty of "playing GameBoy standing in the middle of the Grand Canyon" (Steven Curtis Chapman). Or as Rich Mullins put it: "So go out and live real good and I promise you'll get beat up real bad. But, in a little while after you're dead, you'll be rotted away anyway. It's not gonna matter if you have a few scars. It will matter if you didn't live."

Are YOU My Neighbor?

Last weekend's message by Pastor Dave included a quick reference to Luke 10:25-37, commonly referred to as The Parable of the Good Samaritan. It reminded me that I had written a humor-infused version of the story for my other blog, Almost the Truth.

And then I got to thinking...that little trifle wouldn't be so terribly out of place in THIS blog.

And so, I invite you to follow the following link to revisit my retelling.

Almost the Good Samaritan

Truth is...funny or not, Jesus makes His point very well. The question should not be "Who is my neighbor?" but rather "Who am I being a neighbor to?" And if the answer isn't "Whoever God places in my path," then I'm missing the point.

Chance Meeting Results In Unequaled Success

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) is selling 11,000 books a day...24 years after his death. And yet, his first book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, almost didn't get published.

From A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, by Brian Grazer:

The story of Geisel being rejected twenty-seven times before his first book was published is often repeated, but the details are worth relating. Geisel says he was walking home, stinging from the book's twenty-seventh rejection, with the manuscript and drawings for Mulberry Street under his arm, when an acquaintance from his student days at Dartmouth College bumped into him on the sidewalk on Madison Avenue in New York City.

Mike McClintock asked what Geisel was carrying. "That's a book no one will publish," said Geisel. "I'm lugging it home to burn." McClintock had just that morning been made editor of children's books at Vanguard; he invited Geisel up to his office, and McClintock and his publisher bought Mulberry Street that day.

When the book came out, the legendary book reviewer for the New Yorker, Clifton Fadiman, captured it in a single sentence: "They say it's for children, but better get a copy for yourself and marvel at the good Dr. Seuss's impossible pictures and the moral tale of the little boy who exaggerated not wisely but too well."

Geisel would later say of meeting McClintock on the street, "If I'd been going down the other side of Madison Avenue, I'd be in the dry-cleaning business today."

Truth is...Persistence doesn't always lead to success, but we fail 100% of the attempts we don't make.

What You See is What You Get - "Just As I Am" Prosified

In 1835, while in the midst of feelings of worthlessness, Charlotte Elliot wrote the words that soon became the hymn, Just As I Am. She certainly had no idea her personal outpouring of submission and surrender to God would become the soundtrack for thousands of people coming to Christ in churches and Billy Graham evangelistic meetings around the globe.

While you can read the poetry at any number of places online, perhaps this prosification will lead to a deeper consideration of the Truth in the Art.

Dear Jesus, what You see is what you get, but I'm coming to You...without a single request except that You died for me and You desire me.

I'm not going to wait a moment longer to come to You, because You're the only one who can make my dirty, sinful soul clean again. 

And it's not like I've got my act all together. I'm coming to You unsure of myself; full of doubts and conflicts. I'm fighting with, and fearful of, not only other people, but even myself...and yet...I come to You.

And You've promised to accept me with open arms: forgiving my sins and freeing me from Sin...what a relief to come to you and be welcomed.

That kind of love is unheard of, and has broken down every wall that separates me from You. I want to belong to You, and You alone. What You see is what You get, but I'm coming to You...the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Truth is...I should probably recite this every morning.

Four Hands, One Guitar

One plus one can equal a lot more than two. Consider Fernando, from Brazil, and Cecilia, from Uraguay.

When I watch this video of them four-handing a guitar, my cheeks start to hurt, because I cannot stop smiling. The joy with which they play spills over and fills me up.

https://youtu.be/CcsSPzr7ays

Truth is...cooperation and collaboration really can create something better than the sum of the individual parts. None of us is as smart, wise, good, or creative as ALL of us.

If You've Only Got 3 Wishes...

"You do not have because you do not ask." (James 4:2)

That's pretty clear. James doesn't beat around the bush...burning or otherwise.

But if you're being honest...and if you're anything like me...you might be thinking right about now, "I've asked plenty, but a lot of those prayers have gotten me zilch."

Well, James has a verse that covers that pretty well, and it's the very next one: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures."

Yep. You got me there. I pray for my bank account (so we can eat out more often). I pray for my Beloved's health (so she'll feel well enough to do things with and for me). I pray for the people on our church's list of requests so I won't feel guilty and so others will think I'm a great elder.

I'm pretty much like the mortal in this F Minus comic, by Tony Carillo:

While the metaphor of God being a genii can only go so far, and probably shouldn't even go that far, the point is that here we are...with direct access to Someone with "phenomenal cosmic power"... and we spend our time asking for physical health and financial wealth.

How about things like "make me a positive peace-maker in my contentious workplace"? What about "make Yourself real to my atheist friend" or "help our church to change our neighborhood"?

Truth is...I want to be an instrument in Your hands, Yahweh. Forgive me for not thinking big enough, for not dreaming in Technicolor, and for making You small enough to fit in my tiny box. Unleash Yourself upon a sick and dying world...and if You want to use me to do that, here I am.

How Could I Ask For More?

The word on the street is that the 90s are making a comeback. From fashion to movies to musical styles, everything old is new again.

It's a fairly common occurrence, actually. The sitcom Happy Days, set in the 1950s, was hugely popular in the 70s. That 70s Show was a hit in the 90s. And now, 20 years after the fact, surprise-surprise, here come the 90s again.

As far as music goes, it kind of leaves me in the dark. I pretty much stopped listening to Top 40 radio after Billy Joel's 1981 album, The Stranger (which was the last vinyl record I ever purchased). Not because that wonderful collection of songs scared me away, but because...well, I'm not really sure why. I had become a father and was going to Bible college to prepare for a life of vocational ministry and maybe I no longer had a desire to dedicate any time to that portion of popular culture.

None of which has any effect whatsoever on how glad I was this week to stumble on a song from 1992 by Cindy Morgan, How Could I Ask For More?

It's a quiet, thoughtful recounting of some simple pleasures...things that make life sweet and hearts happy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTey7bi5Acg

Truth is... some of the best things in life are free. Not a new thought, but one that's good to be reminded of, no matter what decade it is.