Nostalgia | Wayfarer

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light…”
Ephesians 5:8 (NIV)

My generation grew up living for Saturday mornings. For most children, we had only three major broadcast channels on television. Saturday mornings were when all three networks packed in their children’s programming. Every Saturday morning found me in my bean bag chair, on the shag carpeting, ready to binge cartoons for four hours.

It was during those years that ABC had a series of legendary educational music videos generally known as Schoolhouse Rock. The music videos taught basics in math, grammar, history, and civics with catchy, ear-worm tunes. I can still sing many of them. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago during breakfast I annoyed Wendy with my rendition of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence a la Schoolhouse Rock.

The best Schoolhouse Rock song was, however, Conjunction Junction, in which a train conductor taught us the grammar of conjunctions which are always “hookin’ up words phrases and clauses.” The conductor taught me that “and,” “but,” and “or” will get you pretty far.

Conjunction Junction came to mind this morning as I read the chapter, especially in continuation of yesterday’s chapter. The Apostle Paul spends a lot of time at Conjunction Junction, not just in today’s chapter, but in all of his letters. If you pay attention, you discover that he loved to contrast the old with the new, the. light with the darkness, and a life lived in the Spirit, following Jesus into God’s eternal Kingdom, with a life lived in the flesh, following the world to nowhere but the end of the earthly line.

Here are examples from today’s chapter:

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light…”
“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”
“Be careful how you live, not as unwise, but as wise.”
“Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
“Do not get drunk on wine…[but] be filled with the Spirit…“

The message from Paul’s perpetual crossing at Conjunction Junction is simple, yet profound. Being an obedient disciple of Jesus will increasingly create spiritual, mental, relational, and behavioral contrasts to those who simply and mindlessly follow fallen human nature and its worldly appetites. To say “I believe in Jesus” yet otherwise remain on the track to nowhere but the end of the earthly line means I missed the spiritual junction where life’s railroad track to Dark Valley switches to the line leading up to Sonrise Mountain.

So, in the quiet this morning, I find myself pondering the implied question Paul is asking from Conjunction Junction. As I look at the landscape of my own life, which line am I on, and where is it leading?

One of the things I love about Jesus’ Message is that it’s never too late to make the switch.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Wendy and I headed to Principal Park in Des Moines yesterday afternoon to attend our first Iowa Cubs game of the season. It was great to sit in the sun, get sunburn, eat a hot dog, and quaff a few cold ones despite our boys of summer getting trounced by Oklahoma City.

One of the many reasons I enjoy baseball is the history and traditions of the game. Given my love of history and my tendency to be nostalgic to a fault, it makes sense that I would love a game that has roughly been played the same way for almost 200 years. It’s a game that binds generations together.

My first trips to Sec Taylor stadium (now known as Sec Taylor Field at Principal Park) were in the early 1970s. About once a summer my grandpa Spec would drive me to Sec Taylor (with a requisite drive by of the Iowa State Capitol building) for an afternoon game. In those days the home team was known as the Iowa Oaks, the AAA farm team of the Oakland Athletics. Grandpa would get us bleacher seats in the shade of the open grandstand roof, behind home plate. We watched some of the great players of Oakland’s World Series winning “mustache gang” as they made their way up to the bigs.

Today, when I sit and enjoy the Iowa Cubs in a much nicer park I am reminded of my grandfather. I never fail to have memories of bringing Taylor and Madison to games when they were young. They still humor dad with an occasional trip to the park even though neither of them really cares about the game. I relive memories of bringing our young friends Nathan and Aaron. And, God willing, I dream of the day I get to bring my own grandchildren to a game at the same park, just as Grandpa Spec brought me.