Breath of Fresh Air

REAL Christadelphian MAN Weekend

How can one distill a MAN weekend into a single post?  We lived 1,000 lives over that weekend…

Well, the MAN weekend did not disappoint, at least for the attendees.

We were TRULY saddened by the loss of 3 brethren to the patheticness of American Airlines.  We hereby call upon ALL Christadelphians to forever boycott that pitiful excuse for an airline company.  The IllinoyBoys couldn’t make it, and they will have to wait until next year to enjoy the wonders of the Arkansas Wilderness (see picture below). 

The gist of the weekend was this:  we are a band of brothers who are committed to each other on the basis of our mutual love for the Creator and what He has told us to do.  We talked about our identity in regards to our beliefs.  We talked about our identity in regards to our behavior.  We talked about a path forward for our issues here in Arkansas.  Right now, we have a group of Christadelphians locally who are in desperate need of our help.  That is our focus – what we do MUST be motivated by love, and our desire to help people (locally and distant) know there are REAL Christadelphians here in Arkansas.  We also had a fresh discussion on the Memorial Service (MS) that we practice as Christadelphians.  Unfortunately, what could be a fine ritual, useful for reminding us of our individual commitments, has turned into a debacle.  We talked about the relationship of our children to the MS – for example, the children are an integral part of the Passover feast in Judaism, in fact, you might argue that teaching them is the focus of the Passover celebration.  We also talked about how sometimes it seems like we bring the service to a grinding halt when we come to the MS, instead of logically flowing into the MS as part of our discussion, as a logical thing to do.  Is this due to the abuse of the MS that we’ve seen be certain Instigator Christadelphians over the past few years (i.e., using it as a tool for exclusion, instead of a tool for inclusion?  WHAT AN ABOMINATION!!!)  We talked about how the first century believers may have practiced it, how wine and bread would have been present at every house – staples of everyday life – and easy to incorporate into a simple reflection on our Lord and Master’s life.  What simple reminders do we keep around that might serve as symbols for an impromptu MS?  Should everyone have a bottle of Mogen David handy???

That having been said – all those novel ideas that no one has ever thought of before, these genius products that were only possible because the brain power which was assembled far exceeded any that has ever come together in one place before – reminds me of the Parable of the Bud Light Can.

The Parable of the Bud Light Can

Such novel ideas may be likened unto an event you surely experienced when you were a young boy.  You had ventured far into the woods, further than you had ever before ventured away from your house.  I mean, you could hardly even see your house any more.  And you thought:

“I wonder if I’m the only person who’s ever been here.”  And then, you look down, and there’s a Bud Light Can sitting on the ground right next to you.

This has happened to you at various other times as you’ve grown.  A few years later, you found yourself on your first camping trip with Dad or Uncle Steve, and you wandered a bit off the trail, always in search of an adventure, and you thought:

“Certainly, with all the miles and miles of open country, this one spot on the ground has never seen another human being.”  And there, again, lies the Bud Light Can.  You start to wonder if it’s following you…

And even this weekend, as we explored the natural and spiritual wildernesses, we found ourselves on the Ozark Highland Trail / Shores Lake-White Rock Western Loop.  Remote?  About as remote as you can get.  Miles from dirt roads.  Stray a little off the path, and maybe, just maybe…

Nope.  There’s the Bud Light Can.  Actually, this time it was a Ten of Spades.  An actual playing card.  How humbling.

Here is the interpretation of the matter:

Our novel ideas are a lot like this encounter with the Bud Light Can.  It’s late at night, and the philosophy is running deep (and maybe there’s other “deep stuff” being thrown out, too – the kind that requires waders).  You think:

“Surely no one has EVER come up with this idea before!”  And you close your eyes for a moment, so proud of your unequaled mental capacity, and there, in the darkness of your mind…

is a Bud Light Can, left by some other human in search of God’s Way.