Parents, don’t be stymied by a hooey. I remember being asked to come play some pickup football with my friends in the ball field at the church next to my house. I jumped up from my boredom, threw on my shoes, hopped on my beloved Spyder bike (see earlier post http://williampmcg.blogspot.com/2020/05/parents-anticipation-what-are-you.html) and began furiously pedaling across my yard, like a calf out of the shoot. What I had not considered was that I had taken off so quickly, I had not tied my sneakers. By the time I realized it, I was in the middle of the yard, my shoelace had wrapped up in the chain tying my foot to the bike. As I lost momentum from not being able to pedal, I fell over awkwardly, unable to get off the bike. I lay there, tangled in my bike, like a calf in a hooey, not the hooey that we mean as “nonsense”, as in “that's a bunch of hooey,”(though come to think of it, that term also may work here), but the kind of hooey that calf ropers use to make a knot in the rope once three legs are tied to secure the young bovine. There I was stymied in the middle of the yard, tied to my bike to be seen by the rodeo gallery also known as the neighbors who just happened to drive by. It was much longer than the required 6 seconds in rodeo ropin’ that I lay there trying to figure out how to escape. I thought, I will just pull my foot out of my shoe. But the laces had twisted my sweaty, stinky, vinyl tennie so tight, my foot wasn’t going anywhere. After laying there for what seemed like forever, I finally figured out how to get myself and the bike upright while I was still securely fastened like a seat belt in turbulence. I was no Houdini, but I managed to free myself and go play football. There are some things I really want to out and do in this pandemic, but I really need to make sure my shoes are tied first and not go charging like an unsuspecting calf out of the shoot. As my Burns and Steinbeck quoting mother used to say when something would mess up, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
So, what do we do? How do we live our lives? How do we move forward? God definitely has our attention at the moment, so we should talk to the One who was not caught by surprise in all this. Jesus’ half-brother James reminds us of our humble position and says, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.” James 4:13-16 (NIV) We have family plans for this Summer, and really want to see each other, but we also want to keep everyone safe, so after some stops and starts we are still praying about what to do. The Good News about all of this pandemic is that we are urged closer to the One who loves and cares for us and has plans to prosper us, plans not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future.(Jer 29:11)
Hang in there people! God is with us! I’m praying for you all!
