You know the Cheers song--"making your way in the world today takes every thing you've got..."  "... sometimes you want to go where everybody know's your name, and they're always glad you came..."

Yeah, I'm feeling that way.  Moving to Kansas City has been something like an episode of "Sliders"--the sci fi show where Jerry O'Connell and friends jump/"slide" through wormholes into alternate realities of earth where many things seem the same but something is always off.  We recognize restaurants, we see some things between KC and Indianapolis as very similar, we experience some things (and people) that are totally different.  I'm in the local grocery store and see someone that I think I recognize, yet the person I know is 500 miles away.  

 And nobody knows us.  Not just our name, but WHO we are and what we are about.  In many ways we are starting from scratch; missionaries in a different culture, learning the language, discerning the cultural norms, navigating new roads, pioneering a new community of faith in this "wild west" that is just different enough from what we know and where we are known.  

It would be so much easier to just go back East to where we are known...inside and out.  God give us the patience and the strength to forge ahead in this new world, that we may become known, but much more than that, so that the people we come to know may come to know You.

We took our girls to see "Kung Fu Panda" and we enjoyed it immensley.  The animation was great!  What I didn't expect was to connect with the movie so much.  I had previously said before going was "I think I saw that movie the first time, when it was called 'Beverly Hills Ninja' (starring the late Chris Farley)..."  I went in ready for summer popcorn fare, and I was pleased to be surprised.

There were several lines in the movie that stood out to me, most from the wise and toothless turtle master, Oogway (of course I know turtles are toothless, but this guy was really toothless--drawn to look really old...).  One of the lines was: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift; that is why it is called the present."  I'm sure the writers of the script borrowed that Moment of Zen from somewhere else, but the old turtle said it, and so I'm giving Oogway the credit as the source of those words.  I resonated with those words, especially in our present situation of figuring out how to plant and grow a church from the DNA up; our comfort and security of "yesterday" is now an unseen shore, our destination "tomorrow" is unknown, and "today" we are floating, trusting, navigating, by the gifts of God's spirit and dependent on the graciousness of strangers.  But the gift of today is what we do with the opportunity; how we live this day is a gift to God, to others and to ourselves.

Without giving away the deep secrets of the saga of the Kung Fu Panda, there is one other line that stuck out: "You are the Secret."  (Watch the movie to find out more).  But it made me think about Jesus' words when he sent out the disciples the very first time on their own to preach and heal (see Matthew 10 and Luke 9 for the story).  Jesus said, in essence: "Take nothing for your journey; no money, no extra tunic, or sandals, or staff.  Travel light."  Eugene Peterson's The Message says it this way: "You don't need any extra equipment.  You are the equipment."  The turtle Oogway might say, "You are the secret.  the secret ingredient."  In other words, we already have what we need to accomplish what God desires of us as disciples of Jesus--just as we are, we can preach and heal and proclaim God's grace and glory.  Just as we are, broken and imperfect and seeking and weak and small.  We are enough, just as we are, today, to be God's gift of love to others and to offer ourselves as a gift to God.  There it is, folks, your Moment of Zen.  LIVE THE GIFT!! 

The Hooters were one of my favorite 80's bands (laugh all you want at the name, it had nothing to do with the restaurant with the "owl" mascot--it was a small keyboard like instrument that used wind to play it... kind of an updated rock accordion/harmonica with keys.  But I digress....) They had a song called "You Never Know Who Your Friends Are." 

Today, I got to hang out with my friend Mike.  We could never have predicted or planned the circumstances or choices that brought us both back "home" to Kansas; both of us had rooted and connected our lives in other places far away from here.  Both of us have most recently felt more at home elsewhere and not (yet) here, in Kansas.  But today, after more than two years since we last saw each other and really four years since he moved away, we were back together again. 

There are some people you just feel "at home" with.  Mike has been one of those people for me over the years.  Even though its been so long, and there has been a lot of life and experiences that have come and gone, it was like picking up right where we left off.  Our conversation wandered through catching up to issues of faith and life and money and choices and social justice and politics and grace and love and places in our lives that need a little healing.  We treked from Shawnee through Westport and Midtown to downtown KC and then over near 18th and Broadway we entered the "First Church of Arthur Bryant's" and shared a communion of rib tips and a pitcher of Boulevard. 

 We could never have predicted, planned, or ever even remotely wished for the circumstances and choices that led us on the path of life to this reunion.  But here is the grace for the moment (from the Hooter's song, and Mike if you read this, especially for you...) "Its funny how the road can lead back to all the ones you need, you never know who your friends are..."

Today, I do know.  Thank you, Professor Dude man.