Kiwanis Prayer Breakfast
May, 2002
Saturday night… the play.. if we cancel out a single night, we’re broke.. can’t reschedule.. Even WLDS national weather serviceman said to take cover.. Pray all day.. intermission… lightening
What I’m going to do this morning is like Enron conducting an honesty seminar or the Cubs sponsoring a baseball camp for kids… I’m going to speak on what I have the most trouble with myself.
Faith I have learned three things about faith: Faith is not luck Age makes a difference No matter how old you get, you’ll never quite get it right.
1)Faith is not luck: Some wear faith around their neck like a good luck charm Some people say.. “Oh, I’m in trouble. I’d better pray. I need God today, so I’ll pray.” .. and the cross becomes a rabbit’s foot to wear on your keychain. I do theatre..lots of superstitions.. “Never whistle backstage.” “Never wear new underwear on opening night.” Never wear green onstage. Avoid entering stage right. “Never say MacBeth.” (go out, turn three times, spit).. and many actors carry lucky charms in their costumes.
Paul Harvey once ran a contest…pick the man with the worst luck…It was a tie: 1) lady, snake; 2) guy motorcycle
Wish me the tooth fairy, wish me Santa Claus, wish me something that might possibly exist, but don’t wish me luck.
When I was in high school I wrecked three cars within a month’s time. 67 Mustang backwards into a man’s garage… through the side that had no door. Driving with my date in my Dad’s new Buick.. saw friend..waved..hit another friend. Same guy…3rd moving violation…was walking with his dog…
Faith was not staying out of accidents..faith was calling dad after every wreck and asking him to come get me. Faith is being here to tell you about it. God does not change the world to make our faith seem logical. God changes us in the world … he is the creator of our faith.
Still..many of us treat our faith like luck. We go to church most of the time, we try to be nice to people, we serve on church committees… we pray before your meals and at bedtime if you’re not too tired… And when you really get in trouble, you can maybe talk to Jesus … and Jesus…Jesus will become a good-luck charm to hang around your neck.
That is not faith… It’s a horseshoe over your doorway. It’s a rabbit’s foot.
As I looked out into the sky full of lightening above Triopia Saturday night, I searched for the proper spiritual rabbit’s foot to save the show. On my knees? In tongues? Call for someone else to pray with me? I kept looking for the right magic charm and ignored the real answer: faith.
Age makes a difference. Why does the Bible ask us to have the faith of a child? Because you had more when you were born than you do right now. Children have faith. A baby on a mother’s lap will take a plunge right onto the floor…firm in the faith that there’s’ no danger. Dad used to threaten Keith and I with torture and death if we didn’t shut up and go to bed. Now I know he’d never do such a thing. When I was eight I had faith that he meant what he said and I went to sleep.
As adults, we start rethinking things. Isn’t a weird world? When you turn on a light switch, it never enters your head that the light won’t come on. But when we pray, we are careful to ask for only those things that we think maybe God can do or will do. The day I discovered this about myself..the day I found I had more trust in Illinois Power than in the God of the Universe, was the day I knew my faith was in trouble.
My mother’s faith got bolder as she grew older. She and Aunt.. traveled to Eygpt with a group of Presbyterians to meet with Anwar Sadat. (He was assassinated shortly after this…he believed in luck) When they went on to Israel they were told that part of the tour of Gaza was cancelled since Americans had been killed there the day before.. So the two farm ladies hired a driver and took off their own. They wouldn’t have tried that in their thirties.
Every time I left the house, Dad would holler “Be careful!” During the worst weather of the winter I called my 82-year-old Dad “Dad, you can’t even see the road.” “That’s okay, I know where it is.” LATER:…State Police said stay off the highways.. “Good, I hate to drive when there are cops on the road.”
Age makes a difference.. Thirty years ago I wouldn’t have even thought about the weather during a play. If I’m doing plays when I’m 80, it won’t bother me. Saturday night I knew we’d had it. Once hit by lightening…Kurt’s drums…
Faith is a lifelong struggle..It’s a spiritual muscle that must be exercised or it will atrophy. And you never quite get it right. That’s why the scriptures call God the “creator and perfector of our faith.” Because God knows we can’t do it on our own.
I talk about it a lot, but it’s a real struggle to do it. You’re 24 times more likely to be killed driving to work in a few minutes than if you took a plane around the world 100 times. Yet we get nervous about the plane and zip down Morton without thinking. And for me…worse odds…Triopia kids driving to school.
(Fidel?)
God does not promise theatre without lightening or power companies that are infallible. He does promise to take us through the storm. His power company never fails.
As I stood out there in the darkness behind Triopia Saturday night, surrounded by lightening, my faith failed completely. I complained to God bitterly about how He had failed…not mentioning myself. Then I heard a click, turned around and saw through the glass of an adjacent hallway that my cast was lining up in front at least twenty flash cameras and they were setting the night ablaze. I looked up and saw a sky full of stars. The storm had literally parted around Morgan county and gone both north and south.
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