Hi & Lois...Really!?

I am a stalwart reader of the comics.  I don't know how or why I fell into the habit, but I generally manage (to my wife's chagrine) to read the funnies every morning before leaving for work...even when it means that the kids need to ask twice to grab my attention and get, say, more milk in their cereal bowl...or maybe a spoon with which they can, you know, eat... said... cereal.

While I read the comics every day, I don't generally expect them to speak to me...not with a message from God or anything.  Which made it doubly-strange when they did, this morning.  He did, I mean.  I guess. And it seemed particularly odd when He chose "Hi & Lois" to do it...I mean, really: Hi & Lois!?  Well, at any rate, take a look:

Original Image published online at http://www.timesunion.com/comics/index.asp?feature_id=Hi_and_Lois&feature_date=2009-10-21

Now allow me to explain:  Over recent weeks a group of men (myself included) have finalized all the proper steps to establish an organization called Piercing the Veil. It's purpose? Well...in a nutshell, to help enable men to find their purpose in life.  God's purpose to be more exact...His calling, for each of us.  The Life He promises, now.

So here we are - a group of men who have labored together to establish and register an organization...to create and post a website (http://www.piercing-the-veil.com/)... to reserve space at Wintergreen Resort this January in hopes that 60 or more men will gather in pursuit of God's calling in their life, and I'm reading the comics over my coffee this morning when, in the third panel, that baby hits on the real bottom line we all face.

Is everything I'm doing...most of what I'm up to, I mean...is it all really just, well...crap?

Certainly it is...or can be...in my life.  And why wouldn't it be?  What am I pursuing?  To what do I hold myself accountable?  To what do I aspire?  For what do I hope?  And pray?  Any given day my priorities and actions and thoughts and efforts point to "important" things like my paycheck or vacation plans.  And those are just a few topics that seem "safe enough" to disclose on a blog...what is my real pursuit, moment by moment?  Lust? Power? Money? Fame and Ego?  Seriously. How far removed from a baby's diapers are all of my apparent pursuits, in the big picture I mean?

Oh wait...a big picture? A larger story?  You mean there might be more? 

The last poll data I saw (published in Parade magazine, a reputable source in any good theologian's book) indicated that something like 80% of adults in America muster up a prayer of some sort any given week...so there is at least a collective hope that something more is out there...something more matters.

If that were true, is true, what if that "something more" actually wanted more than a happenstance prayer now and again...and not for His sake, but for ours?  What if He wanted something more for us?  What if, against all odds, He wanted to tell us what that looked like?  Not with layers of duty and ritual or in some type of demeaning "you can't really ever do it" kind of way...but with an invitation and a desire and a hope to chase.  Something to pursue.

Wow.  What if He were to sit next to you on the couch and say, "Boy you're lucky.  Your purpose is to..."

That would be pretty cool, I think.  Might He?  Do you hope He would?  Join me, and others, and a guy named Gary Barkalow (find out more about him at http://www.thenobleheart.com/) at Wintergreen this January 8-10.  Learn more about our group and register for the event online at http://www.piercing-the-veil.com/.