Flash

I'm giving up flashing policemen for Lent. It's finally sunk in not all the guys driving in cruisers are my husband. I apologize for any illicit behavior on my part that has scarred them for life.

Lent is a great time to give up a destructive habit. I sometimes give up swearing, or yelling, or when I'm too enamored with all my destructive habits I give up peanut butter. That is naturally cheating because I detest peanut butter. 

I've never given up cheating, but that would mean refraining from games for forty days. I don't consider stealing the deal from my daughters when we play cribbage as actual cheating; I'm teaching them to pay closer attention.

I do sometimes think about being better behaved. It would be embarrassing to have the headline, "Pastor Arrested for Pressing Bosom up Against Church Window" in the Juneau Empire (Kirt wouldn't let me put boobs, but I had lots of fun running alternative words by him. If I had a dime for every time he shook his head). Luckily that time I refrained. Who knew a police car not driven by my husband would cruise through the church lot on a Saturday night? 

I'm a turdbird for multiple reasons.

1. It is my way of rebelling. My brother was the party guy who got in trouble normal ways. I came home challenging the meaning of existence and questioning social order. 
2. It makes me laugh. There's so much sadness in the world and sometimes I'm mischievous because it feels like I'm defying sorrow and suffering. I refuse to give into the hurt and darkness so I do random acts of goofiness. 
3. It breaks down walls. There was a lovely moment in LA at the Food Bank where one of the community service volunteers was getting ready to leave and she gave me a big hug. She said, "You call yourself a dork, but I think you're just fun and goofy." Sweetest words I've heard in a while. 

It does get me thinking that well-behaved people are rarely interesting or approachable. I don't mean people need to cuss, drink, and flash policemen to be interesting, but there needs to be a resistance to what is expected of them at times. There needs to be a pushback to the norms we so easily settle into and then declare as mandatory for everyone.

You can think poorly of me as a pastor for swearing, yelling, and flashing, but when I read the story of Jesus I don't see purity as the main point. It's about loving folks, especially folks we aren't "supposed" to love. 

So I don't always do what I'm supposed to do. I won't totally blame it on Jesus, but I do believe it makes me more alive and faithful to flash my husband every now and then. I know one of these times it will actually be him.