Wade Poe

"Where are all the people?  Have we really had a bunch of people who didn't show up?"  It was an amazing wedding and reception, but for a moment at the beginning of the reception, I looked around and was a little sad and disappointed for my daughter and our family a while.   "Why did people not come?  Why did so many not come to the reception?" At some point, a few minutes in, my wife observed in passing that the chair rental place had set up way too many chairs.   We'd asked for six places max, per table, following a carefully planned seating chart and they'd set up eight or more, making it look like a lot of people didn't show up - at least to me.  And only for a little while. It is interesting how details can change how we see situations.  Just a few extra chairs and I thought we'd had people who'd abandoned us after the wedding. After my wife's comments, my mind went back to standing in front of the audience while reading the couple...

Paul, the guy who wrote much of the New Testament, wasn't trying to get people to quit having sex.  He also wasn't trying to get people to a place where they enjoyed what we'd call "Christian culture".  And Paul wasn't setting up a new religious following that would permanently financially benefit anyone. __________ It's easy to project the culture you grow up in on to just about anything.  I certainly learned to project what "church" taught me back in time, into the Bible - as if "Bible times" and the time I was growing up in the church were similar.   Kind of like when we went to "The Great Passion Play" in Eureka Springs, Arkansas - white people, for the most part, dressed in VBS clothes acting out the life of Jesus - that's what the Bible and it's events were like - we just lined up our teachings and ideas and projected them back into scripture. It is very hard not to do this.  Everyone does it.  But that doesn...

Some years back South Park had a couple episodes where a set of characters showed up and changed everything.  They were called "member berries" and when eaten, the childlike berries made you reminisce constantly about the past, how wonderful it was, and great it would be to "get back there" - or something like that. Member Chewbacca? Member Ghostbusters? Member feeling safe?  Etc. They represented the hopeful times of parts of the past and, at the same time, sour grapes over the fact those times were gone and that they also were mixed with less than great and hopeful things. It was pretty funny and kind of made a good point about how fond memories for good times in the past can lock us into a way of being that glorifies the past and keeps us from engaging the reality around us now with hope and relevance - especially for those who weren't part of the past we enjoyed. Though it's changing a little, there's still a staunch collective in my tribe of origin ...

"Have you quit beating your wife?" Back in the 80's when learning logic, dialogue, debate, etc, we discussed how you have to unpack the question itself before you answer it or you're at the mercy of the person asking the question. The above question was one of the sample questions we unpacked because it had so many assumptions built it.  For example, it assumes 1) the person is married, 2) the person they're married to is a woman and 3) that they have been beating their wife. A person answering that question would need to confront and counter the misleading options or statements in the question, otherwise they're walking into a verbal trap. _______________ "If you don't go to church, how will you be spiritually fed?" One of the common things I hear from people on this journey over the past several months is that question.   It's not a bad question, but it assumes a lot of things.  Like the question at the top of the post, it's one of thos...

A blessing from God recently – I got to listen to a “hero of my growing-up-faith” speak at a local gathering of believers. 20+ years ago, I would have been hanging on each word, being led by the emotion of songs sung prior to the speech, feeling the social pressure of people who I likely wanted the approval of, and listening to the message with a personal interpretation of conviction and direction, etc.  This time it was a different kind of experience.  Don’t get me wrong - I am grateful for those who were encouraged and built up by that moment. I am glad that things of that nature are available for people who need them to move forward, day-to-day.  At least I think I’m glad for them. For me, it was very different in that it seemed like the same song and dance that I have ever heard in most every church message I have ever listened to growing up and yet I could hear it completely differently for the first time, without trying - it was just different. The message was “God ...

  A reflection from a year and a half out from walking clean away a “church job”. Do I wish I’d spent the last 30+ years in jobs that paid a nice retirement, etc? Sure, that would have been nice.  My religious tribe promised so much through our religious educational institutions. I worked for a “church” for 34+ years that promised a whole lot (you know, retirement benefits, etc that we had documentation for..), depending on who was on the governing board at the time - it just never “jelled” & so now I & others are on our own, as are so many “ministers” across the land who were sold a bill of goods with no backing over the years. I’m good w/ what God’s doing in life, even if I & my family die w/ nothing - knowing more, better, & hard to explain good things that he gives are present & still ahead.  Many blessings to the various incarnations of church leaderships that will come & go with the resources they have. Until the last few years, I had no idea...

To live between a rock And a hard place In between time — Cruising in prime time — Soaking up the cathode rays To live between the wars In our time — Living in real time — Holding the good time — Holding on to yesterdays… You know how that rabbit feels Going under your speeding wheels Bright images flashing by Like windshields towards a fly Frozen in the fatal climb — But the wheels of time — Just pass you by… Some of the lyrics from "Between the wheels", by Rush, during Spring of '84. Here it is being performed live  (copy and paste if link doesn't work - https://youtu.be/fm3lEo2awzQ?si=1LnU2Cj6zAKUTrxh) It's okay if you don't like it - it was written it a way to express the sentiment of the words, etc. They're the same guys who wrote Tom Sawyer . __________ Back then it was the Cold War, Carter and Reagan, the roaring, exponential opening up of culture - music,  media, movies, and more. The promise of so many good things ahead were balanced with the real...