Not what you thought

I saw something the other day I never thought I would see. As I was pulling into the parking lot of a video rental store, I could hear the music blaring from one of the only two other vehicles in the parking lot. It was hard core gangsta rap. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the source. It was coming from the pick up truck beside me. The surprise began when I saw that the only person in the truck was an approximately fifty year old white male. I dropped my videos in the return slot, got in my car to drive away and the surprises kept coming. On the back window of the pickup truck were all the usual adornments - a rebel flag and several NASCAR related decals. I can't remember what they were now, but I know there was a third category of decals of the type usually found on a pick up truck in the rural South.

I'm still trying to reconcile all these conflicting images. I live in an area that is rapidly growing. Most of the economy is driven by the information technology and biomedical fields. People are moving here in droves from all around the country. Several years ago, one of the cities in this area was jokingly (and accurately) referred to as a containment area for relocated yankees. Despite all this, many of the people who live here state with pride their redneck heritage (their words, not mine). Our rap-listening friend fits the bill for this latter group, with the exception of his music of course.

I have enjoyed my own moments of not fitting into someone else's preconceived notions. On more than one occasion, people have been shocked to learn I'm a pastor. It's usually because of my appearance. I don't wear a suit, or even a tie, except on very special occassions. Once I was getting a haircut and all the stylists freaked out about half way through my cut when it became known I was a pastor. "You don't look like a pastor" was their response. "Good" was my response. I then pointed out how differently they treated and talked to me because of this new knowledge. I actually preferred it the other way.

There a lot of preconceived notions about people on a faith journey. They usually don't involve rap of any kind ;-) They do involve a list of do's and don'ts. Or they involve a list of things that will start happening and another list of things that will stop happening. Then the surprise moment comes when we realize that 2/3 of either list turns out to be bogus or yet to be fulfilled. It rocks our world. We don't know how to reconcile the situation. Was all we believed wrong?

Probably. Usually it's wrong because we were focused on the wrong stuff. A faith journey is basically about following God. We tend to add a lot of requirements or expectations of blessings to that. The trick is knowing exactly what it means to follow God. I'd like to hear what you think that means. Think about it and post your thoughts while I go look for that young African-American man driving the pimped out ride while listening to Hank Williams Jr.