Dear Friends,
I recently finished reading Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green. An interesting, thought-provoking book by this writer of some acclaim in the Young Adult Fiction world (one of my favorite genres).
In it he talks about how many interesting connections there are between tuberculosis and things we never thought of as being connected to TB. (For example, he makes a compelling case TB was one of the main factors in instigating WWI, as well as one of the main reasons New Mexico became a state!)
He tells the story of a hatmaker named John from New Jersey who had TB. He headed out west where cities had sprung up, like Colorado Springs and Pasadena, created for those with TB and their families!
John thought the hats out west were terrible (coonskin caps, etc.…) – so, when he returned home, John (last name Stetson) created a new kind of hat, what we now call “the Stetson.”
Why do I tell you this story? It reminds me of how much the gospel is looking for the jewels hidden in a field. What does it mean to be a disciples of Jesus? Maybe it is to be jewel detectors, looking for and being surprised by what unfolds around us.
A relatively new friend of mine (about a year plus or so), a documentary filmmaker, has moved to town. He is making a documentary about the smallest town in the USA with a Pride office. Do you know where it is? It’s in Spencer, Indiana (a 30-minute drive from where I went to high school).
My friend invited me to join him a week ago, Thursday evening at the Boulder Theater for the Sundance Film Festival opening gathering in Boulder. I joined him. It turns out he knows the guy who is the head of the whole Sundance Festival, and I got a chance to visit with him and tell him about our remarkable congregation and what a good site we would be for showing films!
I met this new friend, the filmmaker, when an old friend introduced me to him. We never know how things will unfold, what will develop, but we can and will see possibility bursting around us all the time, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Keep tellin’ the Story,
Mike
Enjoy this version of the House of the Rising Sun by an acappella group.
This week’s takeaway: God has made a world always full of possibility all around us. Let’s pay attention!