KIDDING AROUND

Dear All Of Us,

It happened a few weeks ago.

I've been itching/twitching to tell you about it ever since !!

So here goes.


We were saying good bye after church.

It went like this:

          Mother: Tomorrow is Bobby's birthday.

          Me:       Oh Bobby, how old will you be?

          Bobby:  Eight.

          Me:       Wonderful!

                      The day after your birthday is my birthday.

                      I won't be eight, though.

                      I'll be one year from eighty.

          Bobby:  So, you'll be eighty one.

          Me:       Well, actually I'll be seventy nine.


At play was obviously more a comment 

on the shape I'm (not) in than Bobby's math!

 "Kidding Around" is simply wonderful.




Kids count, and not just 

when figuring out an old man's age.

Kids figure out life 

and get it just right.

Jesus says we can count on that.

Jesus says we need to tally things up 

the way a child does if we are 

to get our life to add up just right.

So let's check out Jesus' kid count,

his way of "kidding around."

As we do it let's also 

    - check out ourselves, 

    - check out how we figure things out,

    - check out how things add up in our spiritual lives,

    - check out how good we are 

       at "kidding around" the way Jesus does.

So much hangs in the balance.

     

            At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked,

           "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
     
            He called a little child to him,

            and placed the child among them.

            He said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change

            and become like little children,

            you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

            Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child

            is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

           And whoever welcomes one such child in my name,

           welcomes me.

              (Matthew 18:1-5, New International Version)






The disciples used standard, 

dominative, one up, 

over and on top math.

It's still the common calculator.

Self worth was/is calculated 

in scoring higher than others,

be that how many donkeys 

were parked out 

in the disciples' back yard

way back then, or

how pricey are the wheels 

parked out front on our driveway just now.

More money, better looks, 

political/popular/sexual/social position, 

fashion fabrics, the hula hop of the moment,

an alphabet of degrees, ritzy residence

(gated community preferred), 

toys way more than most, notoriety

(how many "friends" we have on Facebook,

how many "followers" for our tweets,

how many will vote for us as dog catcher

or president of the bridge club).





Well, Jesus took those disciple boys back to school,

showed them math that matters,

a higher math that has to do 

with being at the bottom of the totem pole.

The object lesson wasn't about an object at all.

It was about a kid.

In that culture kids 

were even more under valued then women.

That was about as under as you can get

in the greatness count -


a social debit in that society for sure.

It wasn't supply side economics.

It was upside down economics 

that paradoxically adds up

and  just right at that.

Jesus told the disciples that 

they absolutely had to cash in 

their value system 

and  completely recalibrate

how  they counted greatness.

Greatness is not being on top

or being loaded up with

culturally preferred stuff and status.

Greatness is way down deep.

It is source centered. 

A child is of infinite value

because that child is 

at core centered in 

The Source and Center 

              of 

             All.

  That child is a being 

       centered in

     BEING ITSELF.

It's a given, not a got!!

It's God darn greatness.



At another time Jesus told 

the boys in his math class

not to bother with titles and tassels,

pecking orders, the best seats in the house, 

having a high public profile

( Your Eminence, The Honorable,

The First Place Goes To...,

The 1% ers - ECKES!!!!!!!!! ).

     ( Matthew 22: 5 - 12, NRSV)




On yet another class day 

Jesus showed the boys how to count

in a way that always holds its value,

always and paradoxically

proves out and true.

      "So the last will be first, 

       and the first will be last."

       ( Matthew 20:16, NRSV)

      


Jesus has a wonderfully 

freeing way of 

"kidding around."

He tells those boys 

in his value added class

to study a child.

The child doesn't even pretend 

to go it alone in life.

The child doesn't even pretend 

to be a "self made man/woman."

The child is comfortable and secure 

in life received, life shared,

God Life, The Source, 

lived and shared 

with family and friends.

The child isn't loaded down 

with the debt of deadening domination.

The child has hands and heart free

to play, to fantasize, to explore, 

to imagine, to snuggle, to dream, 

to run with the wind, to climb a tree, 

to get excited about a hot dog at the ball park.

Take a child camping and seeing the stars

like never before and you'll see a mystic in rapture.



So, how about us?

Does all this mean we shouldn't 

go to college or go to work?

Heck no!!

It means don't play the greatness game 

that isn't at all great and sure as heck

isn't at all a game, much less fun to play.

We're great before we start.

We're winners before we start.

So go to college, go to work and have a great time.

Just be "positioned" right, source centered.

Just be sure to have a good time

      "kidding around"

like Jesus with all us other kids out here 

on the playground of now.

That's where Jesus tell us 

we'll have him for our playmate.


Well, it's been good to have this "down time" together

checking out the math of source centered living,

and how it all adds "up."


Please continue to invite others 

to share in our weekly gathering here.

And here's a shout out welcome

to those new here this week.

There were so wonderfully many

of you  this week - especially from 

Russia and the USA.

Our gathering tripled with your arrival.

             Welcome!!



Happy that we can be free here

for some good old Jesus - like

   KIDDING AROUND.


   In God's Dear Love,

       John Frank

         *****






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