#Bible #Lesson Expressions of Faith. God sightings. An Elephant in the Church


Nineteen years ago, I wrote the script that follows. It was intended for use on a Sunday morning to illustrate our pastor's message. The week the drama team was to perform the script, the pastor was assigned a leadership position outside of California. This script has never been performed.

More on why this is a post at all after the script.

An Elephant in the Church

God Sighting

The rest of this post is an example of a God Sighting that happened as a result of my writing that skit. I found this definition on line for the term. It's a good one.

 A God sighting is a term that seems to be in vogue in some churches circles. I would define it as a spiritual event where people can see the hand of God in their lives.  Because of these unplanned encounters, men, women and children have found the Lord or had their faith renewed.
I have been fortunate to experience more than one God Sighting in my life. The Elephant script was one of the first I remember.

 In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I wrote a series of commentaries on journal articles for posting on the Access Excellence website. The Access Excellence program was started by a biotechnology company expressly to encourage the use of DNA technology in our high school classrooms. You can read all the postings at 
http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/SER/JA.html

 All posts had to go through a website gatekeeper. Her job was to read the submission and contact the author if there were issues she found that needed correction.

 ASIDE. I keep different categories of files in separate folders on my hard drive. Scripts I wrote were nested under Church Stuff/Mission Valley Players/Scripts. The articles on science teaching were in Access Excellence/Journal Articles.

 I finished an article and sent it in the next morning. The gate keeper sent me an email asking me to resubmit because I'd sent the wrong file.

  • I asked her what file she received.
  • She answered, "It's a script about The Elephant in the Church."
  • I apologized and email the right file.
  • I got this from her soon after I submitted the correct file. 
  • I've not edited the following email in any way except for removing the authors name.

Chuck, 

I loved the parable of the "Elephant in church" - like the proverbial elephant in the room that has gotten in the way of my life on many occasions. It's all about the things we don't say, isn't it? I think your skit is very clever. I wonder how a group of students would analyze the message? Have you actually presented it? Anyway, I thought the story very clever. Are you doing more creative writing? 

Have you read Shermer's new book "How We Believe" an interesting treatise on why humans need to believe in God. He is a skeptic. The book digresses in the last three chapters into hominid evolution. He ends up by saying we are pattern seeking, storytelling, moral and religious creatures because of our need to feel secure in the universe. I'd be curious on your take of the book if you have read/read it. 

Maybe I should be clearer about the Elephant. Sort of a long story ... but we once had two children - a girl and a boy. My daughter died at the age of 14 from encephalitis under circumstances that were particular awful for me. After years of therapy, I have finally come to terms - not accepted, but allowed the memory to be in a better place. However, her life and death remained the elephant in my life - in my room, 

Anyway I was unable to speak of her or my loss - the proverbial elephant in the room. I am as you can tell, very sensitive to that interpretation. Now as for your short play, which I liked as you can tell, the elephant in church was the clear absence of meaningful values expressed by the others as they prepared for visitors. Everyone pretended the elephant wasn't there, the reminder of other more substantive things, - like the friends and even family who didn't wish to speak of Carole's death in deference to my feelings. 

So now you know. 

I surprised myself by telling you about our loss - as you say, perhaps the elephant arrived not by "accident" nor was my response. I vacillate a lot between owning the perspective of a universe that has purpose and reason and then trying to justify my daughter's death in the context of a divine plan. Something doesn't compute yet. She deserved way more of life than she got. 

The gift, when I am open to it, is that I have not wasted my grief. I have become a far better teacher and a more empathetic person. Her death has given me vulnerability and that is a good thing. Thank you for your prayers and kind thoughts. Some people are afraid to say anything as if they might remind me of something I won't ever forget anyway. 

I'm convinced this "mix up" was a God Sighting.
Why?

  1. The script was never performed.
  2. I've never sent a file from the wrong folder before or since.
  3. The impact on the woman who read the script is best explained as miraculous. 

I am blessed every time I experience a God Moment. If you can't remember a God moment in your life, remember:
God's still working in our world today! 
Spend time next week looking for God Moments,
He wants to bless you, too. 


SEO: Bible study, New Testament, thinking, knowing God
  
Follow me on 
Twitter: @CRDowningAuthor 

My website is: www.crdowning.com

My Blogs
·       Life as I see it. Topics rotate between those of general interest to lovers of life,  authors, teachers—probably you, too.
I'd appreciate your feedback on Blogger!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts