Here's a message with real meaning to all you cool cats out there!

It's Tuesday, June 29, 2010 and I am sending each of you a personal 'hello'. While folks in your circle or even in mine may not have clever ways to answer the phone, it seems that many today do, and here's a sample of some: What's the good news? Keep it real. Godspeed. Hey, what's up? Howyadoin? YoYo, yiggity yo! Speak! Relax, I'm here. Long time no see! One website lists 142 different ways that people trying to be clever answer their phone. Okay, I suppose I'll have to go ahead and make a confession here because when the phone rings at my house I typically say: Hello. How dull is that? I suppose like the country song, I was dull before dull was cool. The only problem is that dull is typically not thought of as being cool but that doesn't keep me from persisting in my set ways. I actually like some of the greetings I read and I can see where in some social networks they might be appropriate but not in mine. I know every generation has its own lingo and ways of expressing themselves. I was trying to think of some from way back in my days as a teenager. I may have actually said, "Don't have a cow."; "Don't sweat the small stuff."; "Hang loose."; "Meanwhile, back at the ranch."; "Shake it, don't break it."; "Church key. (referring to an opener of a beer or soda can)"; "Daddy-O."; "Outta sight!"; and "Can you dig it?"

These would sound silly to our hip-hop culture today but then again they would likely not want to be seen looking like James Dean in a white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up a couple of rolls and wearing some fairly tight, straight legged blue jeans. Yep. I am guilty of wearing that look a number of times, including some with starched creases. We all have our identity in terms of the era in which we found ourselves, or at least were trying to find ourselves. Some identify with music and the songs they listened to during those formative years in their lives. As a young teenager I can remember being known as a fellow you excelled at doing the "Twist", a dance made famous by Chubby Checker and his 1960 song, "The Twist", with the opening words, "Come on baby, let's do the twist......." We Baptists didn't believe in dancing but since this one didn't require any actual contact with the opposite sex, it more or less slipped in under the radar screen. I wonder if these arthritic hips are simply long repressed echos from my hip twisting days? Don't get the idea I did a whole lot of twisting on the dance floor and I certainly wasn't as fanatical about it as everyone else was about the Hula Hoop. This craze was phenomenal culminating in 1959 when there was a huge celebration to recognize the 100 millionth Hula Hoop sold. I can remember walking around our small rural town and seeing folks of all shapes, sizes, and ages out in their yards making the hoop go round and round and round. Perhaps that's why I get dizzy from time to time. Just joking but also in keeping with full disclosure I must tell you that while my mom and my sisters were great at hula hooping, I never was able to make it work for me. I suppose that twisting stuff may have messed up my timing.

Speaking of identity, I've been lately focusing on this very issue in a series of lessons for my Bible Study class. One of the things we learned this past Sunday has to do with what happens when we who are believers fail to grow and develop in our faith. The Apostle Peter writing in his second letter just before his martyrdom said that when we fail to focus on growing in our faith we can forget who we really are. Wow! A believer can forget who they are in Christ? This, of course, leads to some pretty unhealthy behaviors that often bring pain and misery. James, the senior pastor of the local assembly at Jerusalem wrote his letter to his flock who had been run out of town because of their belief in Jesus. He was greatly concerned about them remaining faithful under the fires of persecution and distress. In Chapter two he spoke some chilling words. He talked about how that believers who never develop in the working out of their faith can lead lives of fruitlessness to the extent that their faith for all practical purposes is dead. Scary! Talk about an identity crisis! But, always remember, that we don't have to stay that way! The Apostle Paul's close companion, Dr. Luke, recorded in the Gospel that bears his name the wonderful illustration from Jesus where He spoke about the wayward or prodigal son. (15th Chapter.) The father (our Father), never gave up on the son. One day the son came to his senses and when he did he got up and returned to his father's house and there was the father (our Father) running out to welcome him home and to restore him to his proper identity within the family. That's good for us all to know, including me! Have a blessed day and may God help us all to be busy showing our identity in Christ by the way we live. Amen. ......More later.