Chemistry was BLAST!

Have you ever worked really hard to be noticed, loved, appreciated, or just let into the inner circle? For most of us, our first taste of being forgettable comes in middle school.

•   You help with a bake sale and don’t even realize it has a “cause”.
•   You hurry to a band recital, which features clarinets and flutes. Really?
•   You somehow end up in a study group for a class you don’t even have.

All this eager effort just to be noticed by some unsuspecting “cutie” or “cool” group. Those of us, who have the courage, grasp at an advertising blitz mentality: If they see me enough, realize the need for me, or purchase me, then everyone wins. The problem is, we all have an internal DVR, and we skip the commercials. The other issue is that I have yet to buy anything that has made my life perfect.
Oh well! You gotta start somewhere.
In 1987, Finn Hill Junior high was selling $1 carnations for Valentine’s Day. My best friend decides that this is his chance to find love, appreciation, and everlasting companionship. Being the Alex P. Keaton young Republican that he was (look it up), my friend took the opportunity to purchase 50 carnations. Poor Anna. She was not emotionally equipped to handle such a beautiful display of O.C.D. So she turned to the middle school handbook for social response… humiliate, mock, ridicule. 25 years later my buddy still carries a bit of that humiliation.

We learn a horrible lesson in the throws of puberty. Working really hard to be accepted, to get love, or be on the inner circle doesn’t always work. But, just because we had a few classes with low self-esteem, hopelessness and self-pity doesn’t mean we have to ask them to sign our yearbooks.

So I got a new yearbook when I started to believe the story about Jesus. In this spiritual adolescence, the cool kids pursue me. Jesus has made all the effort to love, appreciate, and invite me to the inner circle. And this is the kind of stuff He writes in my yearbook.

Psalm 112:5-7
“Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice. Surely he will never be shaken; a righteous man will be remembered forever. He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”

God shows up at my bake sales, clarinet recitals, study groups and lavishes me with 50 carnations, because he really likes me. I respond with trust, peace, joy and the ability to give to others without expecting.

Chemistry was a blast!
Adam