Day 5- Hoops

 

 

 HOOPS

I found out that Sundays are busy days to do a "first." Between preaching and teaching, there is not a lot of time to do a "first." Plus, I've been preaching and teaching for a pretty long time and it is not easy to come up with a first there. I'm going to have to be pretty intentional on Sundays. That's part of what this little experiment is all about- being intentional about living the abundant life in Christ. Plus, I'm not going to do something silly to get in the way of teaching and preaching God's word for the sake of doing a "first."

How about hula hooping something somewhere inside my brain asked. I've never been able to hula hoop. My children discovered hula hooping a few months back and have been having lots of fun with it. When they would ask me to join in from time to time, I would always give my standard answer, "I don't know how." There's a really good reason why I didn't know how. I never tried.

So, I asked the children to teach me. They were busy playing the Wii U but quickly paused their game to help Daddy learn how. I was sort of surprised at how quickly they were willing to help.



My first few attempts did exactly as suspected. I twirled the hoop and vigorously shook my hips and the hoop proceeded quickly and without delay to the floor. I felt a bit silly and ridiculous. That's why I never learned to hula hoop. I hate feeling silly and ridiculous. Hannah Grace and Joel were very encouraging. They offered helps and hints without ever saying things like "Why can't you do this" or "Is that the best you can do?" Encouragement is a better teacher than humiliation any day!

My goal was 2 minutes without the hoop hitting the ground. After several tries, I managed to sort of get it going. After several more tries, I finally made the 2 minute goal. I was very thankful that I had not gone with my original 5 minute goal.

So, I learned several things from my hula hooping.
1. It's not a great way to get ready for a Sunday afternoon nap.
2. Waiting for a while after a big Sunday lunch would probably be a good idea.
3. It's more tiring than I thought or I'm in worse shape than I thought. There is a possibility of a combination of those two.
4. I should not trust the photographer when they say it's a good picture.
5. It''s more fun to try something that it is to be afraid to try. Several weeks ago Hannah Grace and Joel had some friends over and they were all hula hooping. They asked me to join in and I said in typical Barry fashion, "I don't know how." Looking back, that probably would have been a fun time with some of my children's friends. They may have enjoyed laughing at me and helping me. Just because we don't know how to do something is no reason to hold back. I think that this is why many of us hold back on things that we believe God wants us to do. God sometimes calls us to do something that we have never done and we are afraid of trying because we might look silly and ridiculous. We also might influence someone in a strong way for Jesus. If I'm not going to try something because I don't know how to do it and might look silly, I'm not going to grow very much. Life is too short to live with regrets. Especially the regrets of not trying for fear of looking silly or ridiculous. Instead of living with the fear of how I look, why not live with the excitement of what God might do if I trust Him and try?

So, if I"m at your house next week and you invite me to show off my hula hooping skills, I might still say I'd rather not. But at least I know there is a possibility I could do it for 2 minutes.

Trying to get over the fear of looking silly for abundant life

Barry

3 things I thank God for today
1. The song "Motions" by Matthew West
2. Ecclesiastes 9:10
3. Sausage