Removing training wheels (a rite of passage).

Much of what we promise ourselves remains hidden, as these words will be when this floor is finished. The promises below were written with Sharpie markers on the unfinished cement floor of a new addition to St Matthew Lutheran Church in Ada, MI.

I began attending a few months ago with Dee Dee, and Jing is now coming a bit.

A short autobiographical moment from my childhood...

Proverbs 3:5-6[1] is one of only two bible passages I know by heart. (The other is John 3:16. I’m not a good memorizer).

I learned it as a boy when I was asked to give my testimony, along with other young teenagers, at Bethel Baptist Church in Erie, PA, then still on the East side of town and no talk yet of additional services, a Bethel West, or a church split (which was uncomfortable for me to watch even as a child).

I dreaded giving my testimony. I had to get up in front of a few hundred people and tell them about a verse that meant a lot to me, but I didn't have a verse. I read my bible every day, but there wasn’t one verse that stood out as especially important.

Truth is, of course, that asking a 13- or 14-year-old what verse has mean the most to him is merely a step toward removing spiritual training wheels, a rite of passage through which a young Christian becomes an older one.

I asked my mom and dad for help and Mom suggested Proverbs 3:5-6, which had meant a lot to her. So I memorized it and sort of invented a backstory that didn’t sound like I just asked my mom what verse has meant a lot to me.

I distinctly remember a lot of nodding gray heads and affirming smiles.

I’d passed.

And I still remember those verses. They’ve certainly come to mean more to me since then, but not until I was much older did I realize how little understanding I actually had to lean on.

[2013-10-20]

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[1]

5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV)

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