Marty Holman

Jack Bauer

The following is a sore subject with me, and happens between the hours of 12 am and 12 am the next day.

Last night I watched the two hour adrenaline rush that was 24 via my DVR, which made it about an hour and a half.  It was so crazy I had to walk around the living room for the better part of a half hour of the program.  Without going into detail about the happenings of Jack Bauer, I can tell you this has been one of the best seasons yet!  Which is fascinating because I really disliked season 6.

Now one of the things that is a constant on 24 is that there are always people that you cannot trust.  Anyone may turn out to be a traitor or a terrorist, which got me to thinking about something.  One thing I do not handle well is when someone who I’m very close to drastically becomes someone different.  I’m kind of aware that this is America and anyone can do what they want to do, so please save those comments, I’m just venting.

In fact, this is one of those areas where I could probably work on the art of forgiveness the most.  Watching a husband or a wife decide they’ve  “outgrown” the other, only to justify a new lifestyle which he or she has transitioned.  Or a close friend who somewhere along the line has been talked into the idea that they are not into those of the opposite gender, and then relays the new idea that they never were.  Or even the couple who all of a sudden can’t stand the idea of a culturally relevant church, and decide that the very idea is from Satan.

Now if you’re offended that I’ve brought any of these “offenses to me” up, don’t be.  This post has nothing to do with the offenses.  Maybe we’ll save those topics for another day – maybe not.  This post has everything to do with how I look at these offenses.  When someone in my life makes a drastic change, making them a new person in my eyes, I have a hard time forgiving them.  I become the new Jack Bauer, targeting the offender, and trying desperately to stop the change from happening.

What I’m saying is that it’s difficult for me to buy the “I’m just not that person anymore” change.

Maybe it’s because I live in a dream world.  Maybe it’s because the family history between my parents and both sets of  grandparents maintains about 160 years of marriage straight through (60/59/38).  Maybe it’s because my “never change” baptistic ways which I was indoctrinated as a child are still deep inside fighting the now prevalent idea of evolutionistic theory that runs amok in the things I read.  I don’t know what it is, but I’m just telling you, right here and right now…

I think I need to work on it.  Or do I?

Part 1
Part 2

In an ever changing world, it’s important to remember the things that you’ve gone through, but not so much keep those things with you for all time.  That is, I should remember how far I’ve come, and I should remember the lessons I’ve learned along the way, but I still need to get rid of the baggage that I could collect and make into a garbage dump if I’m not careful.

Simplify.  Edit.  Clarify. Disentangle. Reduce.  Shorten. Streamline.  Release.

This is always a process.  It is rarely easy to let go of things that are bad for you. And it is even more difficult to let go of things that are good for you.  But this is a necessary task over time if we don’t want to be left behind in a world of process, growth, and progress.

When I came to Fellowship church, it was a 20 year old baptist church that had closed down its Christian school two years earlier, and had room after room of garbage piled up in it’s hallways, nooks, and crannys. Not to mention the years of emotional baggage piled up high because of church splits, legalism, and sexual sin.  Now into our 30th year, we’re still simplifying, still reducing, still getting rid of the baggage, so that we can be more effective with our purpose of “leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.”

10 years from now, we’ll still be working on it. 
Hopefully, you and I will be too.