What Must They Think?

For over a year now, I've had a Facebook page. I signed up thinking that it would be a fun way to connect with people in my present day life. What has happened, however, is that I've connected with people from various stages of my past. I have reconnected with guys I've known since I was maybe 8 years old!

I sometimes wonder what they must think if they spent any time reading my Facebook page or what I share here on Crossing Paths. I wasn't a terribly wild child growing up, but I also wasn't interested in church. That was not part of my life at all, really. In fact, there is very little in my life now that was very important to me then. I guess you could say sports and music were part of my life then, but it's funny how those elements have played significant parts in my adult life, but in ways I never would have imagined then.

There was one particular girl I went to school with from 7th grade through high school in whom I had a crush from the moment I met her. We became very good friends, but nothing romantic ever resulted. In the waning weeks of our senior year of high school, she was asked to sing a song at our Baccalaureate service the week before graduation. She asked me to sing a duet with her. Remember the song Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes? Yeah, the song from Officer and a Gentleman. Well, that was the song. Fun song to sing, still had a crush on the girl...but at that stage of my life, I was deathly afraid of singing in front of people. So I did what any respectful person would do. I accepted.

Then flaked.

Yeah, not one of my prouder moments.

I have often wondered to myself what she would think now if she knew that not only did I end up singing, but I've done it in front of huge crowds, and across our great country and in many other countries as well.

I think she'd kill me.

I wonder how my life since high school would cause my friends from back then to react. I mean, it's not like I shaved my head and took a vow of eating grass and crickets. Anyway, there was a time when I was genuinely nervous about how my faith might "play" to people from my way back days. But really, why? I'm still me. I still love sports and music. I love movies, have great relationships with wonderful people throughout my life. I'm not ashamed of anything or anyone in my life, so why should I be nervous?

It's funny the things we allow to creep into our minds and lock us up. I've led a pretty extraordinary life so far, and it has nothing to do with me being an extraordinary guy. I'm very ordinary. I just serve an extraordinary God. It's pretty amazing what He can do with a big lump of clay.

I'm living proof.