“In the beginning God created the heaves and the the earth.” I read the slide as the introduction to my talk at UMD this past Thursday. I read “heaves” and made eye contact with a female student in the front. “Well, this should go well tonight.” She looked at me, bored out of her mind, I feared.
Well, I giggled and moved on.
It was that kind of night.
They even have a “keep calm” meme. I felt doomed… ha.
Earlier I was pouring juice for the response time after my talk (taste and see that the Lord is good… I was thinking grapes and other tasty fruits and was too cheap so went for juice and small Dixie cups instead) and a lippy student walked by. He said, “You’re not really going to ask the students to drink the Kool-aid are you?”
I froze. “Do they still teach about Jim Jones?” Unfortunately 3 more students confirmed that asking students to drink something in response to my speaking that night might create some uneasiness. “It’s a saying!!” (see meme! duh)
Well fabulous… But I was already committed and had 60 cups or so already poured out.
So I went with it.
My talk was on Genesis 1. It says God “hovered” over the waters. Do you know that word can also mean shake, making one wonder: What IS God doing here, hovering, shaking, dancing? Like is He warming up before THE biggest workout of His eternal existence? Shaking “it” (Does God have a booty to shake?) as He warms up for this world-changing – well, world-forming – event?!
I love the image of God dancing, hovering and just waiting to make all the things that He did so that one day, we could be sitting at UMD that night, laughing over “heaves.” God maybe did make the “heaves” – I’m sure there is something redeeming about emptying one’s innards…
Well, I preached through the cool progression of how Genesis 1 talks about the earth’s creation, God made it and saw that it was good. He called it out as what is was: GOOD.
I have never thought about this. God makes it and then it says He saw it, then He said it was good. Have you ever done that? Made a meal and the whole time you’re eating it, you’re that annoying person going “MMM. Yum. This is tasty!” Or written a paper and said, “Nailed it!” Or ran 2 marathons, turned 40 in between and felt good doing and said, “yay me!” I’ve done all of that. And now I declare that my saying so is actually a Godly thing to do! (said briefly and not pridefully of course!)
Well, my invitation to taste and see that the Lord was almost thwarted by the Jim Jones of the past. But instead, I simply told the students that there are many imitations out there. And I was NOT inviting them to drink the Kool-aid. Instead, I had 100% Juicy Juice!
Well the dancing, the heaves and the Kool-aid all worked together. One girl even felt like God was telling her He is still dancing and wants her to join Him. Overall it was a good night.